Of Sun and Moon The Last Firebender
by OrangeMonk3y
Summary: An alternate reality story, involving the Avatar characters in the Avatar world, not Modern! What if sort of story, what if it was the Fire Nation instead of the Air Nomads that had been destroyed? T for violence and death, no lemons! Chapter revisions up! Happy reading! Also, finally back to updating, but my schedule is non-existant, so it is super random!
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: I Believe the World is Burning to the Ground

* * *

Katara

Fire. Burning, blinding fire. The evilest of the elements, and the dragons wielded it with utter perfection. It would have been a magnificent sight, except the "timber" that was getting destroyed by the awesome creatures were her friends, neighbors, and family. She screamed deafeningly into the tumult of the destruction, her cry being drowned out by the sound of the roaring flames.

She didn't know how long she sat there observing the mayhem and screeching madly into the abyss, but she was dragged back into reality by her brother. He had been searching for her, yelling her name at the top of his lungs and cringing when he saw the inflamed corpses of teenage girls that littered the streets, until finally he found her. He jerked her up by her arms and commenced to pull her behind him toward the bay. She followed him listlessly, her feet moving without her making them to do so. He pulled her into a small boat and they set out to sea, leaving the smoldering ashes that had once been the Southern Water Tribe behind them never to return.

Blue Spirit

The dragons had begun attacking the Earth Kingdom, Water Tribes, and Air Nomads since the destruction of the Fire Nation. Firelord Sozin had planned to harness the power of a comet to destroy the Air Nomads, but a Earth Kingdom spy had informed the other nations of the plan and the Air Nomads abandoned their temples on the fateful day. Sozin's plan failed and soon after the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom launched a counter attack.

The war lasted until the death of Firelord Sozin's grandson, Firelord Ozai. Firelord Ozai died when a joint army of Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom invaders took control of the capitol city. Rather than be captured alive he consumed a La's Prayer, a plant that was poisonous to firebenders. Upon his death, the Fire Nation fell, and with it came the utter annihilation of the firebenders.

The Fire Nation was razed to the ground, every citizen falling beneath the sword, until not a single one remained. That is when it happened, the dragons appeared from below the earth, two of them, one blue, one red, the last dragons in existence. They were enraged at the disruption of balance caused by the other nations and began their era of destruction.

He had learned about four years ago that all of this had happened over a hundred years ago. He had been miraculously escaped that fate himself, much to the chagrin of a Earth Kingdom general ho had blamed him for the dragons' rampage. That general had received him from an assistant of the archeologist that had discovered him in the ruins of the old Fire Sage temple. She had been a spy, sent to oversee the archeologist's findings within the old Fire Nation lands, and upon discovering the boy to be a firebender, had assassinated the archeologist. It was after that she handed him over to the general.

The general had decided that it was possible the youth knew how to stop the dragons, so he kept him alive. If one could call it living, the daily torture and beatings. When he turned thirteen the general decided he would use an ages old brand on the boy. The brand marked the bearer of the comet-looking scar it left as a firebender, but instead of using it on the boy's left side of his chest, which was the customary place for it, he decided to mark him in a more conspicuous place. His face. His left eye still bore the burn and it always would. He was shocked out of his thoughts by the smell of burning flesh that suddenly flowed into his nose. He stifled a gag as he dashed forward to see if there were any survivors among the city.

Katara and Sokka

After a week at sea, their hastily gathered supplies were almost completely gone which was the reason for his quiet concentration. Why couldn't she understand that he was trying to catch fish for them and just keep quiet? She had remained quiet for almost three days after they had left their homeland, but on the eve of the third night she finally spoke. He had guessed her throat had been sore the previous two days, after all when he had found her she had been screaming incoherently. But why couldn't her throat be sore for just a few minutes right now?

Finally he shushed at her, but that only made it worse. "Don't 'shush' me! I'm only trying to figure out where it is we're going! How long are we going to continue sailing? Are we even near land? Are we LOST?" she shouted the last part to ensure he heard her. Oh, he had. He'd also had enough of her questions and annoyance.

"Woman, I'm trying to catch fish so that we don't starve. Now SIT BACK and SHUT UP and do something useful for once, and leave me alone." He angrily replied, now facing her. Gesturing with her hands and arms madly she shrieked back, "Sokka! How dare you suggest that I never do anything useful! _**I**_ was the reason we didn't crash into that drifting iceberg yesterday, _**I**_ was the one who separated some water earlier so that we could drink pure water and not salt water, and _**I'm**_ the only one who seems to be paying a bit of attention to where we're going and I DON"T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT SAILING!" With the last swing of her arms, last flick of her wrists, the towering iceberg that was directly behind her burst into gigantic chunks and disruptively sank into the depths below leaving enormous waves in its wake.

With gasps of horror, both she and her brother clung frantically to the little boat for dear life. After the waves crashed violently over them, the two soaked youths looked up to see a new glacier in the old one's place, however, the new one glowed with a eerie bluish-white light. She was on her feet before him and stood looking at the mysterious ice, then noticing a figure trapped inside she rushed over to the iceberg jumping deftly on smaller pieces of ice until she reached her destination.

He had trailed after her and finally catching up to her was wary about getting the boy out of the ice. The ice was pretty thick it looked anyway, so wouldn't it be pointless? Before he had ample time to react, she stole his Water Tribe club-sword from him and commenced to pound against the massive ice wall. When she finally broke through, a wave of air burst forth, and she had a strange felling, like she had just met up with a long lost friend.

Blue Spirit

Pulling on his familiar blue mask, he began to quietly search the city for survivors. He guessed the inhabitants had put up quite a fight to be demolished so thoroughly. Earthbenders.

Why were they so thick? They should have just hid underground...hmm. Maybe some of them had, so he put his ear to the ground to try to hear if there was anyone beneath him. No...wait. What was that? He ran off to find an entrance to the subterranean labyrinth and upon finding it, traversed into its dark depths. He hated the dark dampness of caves, it reminded him too much of the dungeon cells he had come to know during his four year stint under the Earth Kingdom general's care.

He was getting closer, but the faint sound was still hard to decipher, what was it? Some-sort of breath? Was he walking straight into the makeshift den of a dragon? No, it was too small a sound for that. It stopped. Hmm...might as well continue because maybe whatever was making the noise had heard his approach and quieted. But he hadn't been loud, he'd been quite stealthy, actually. How had the thing heard him? What was that? Something had just moved just beyond his range of sight. He approached closer, pulling a flame out of thin air to rest in his hand so that he might be able to see, he finally found the source of the strange sound and also realized what exactly it was that he had heard. Sniffling.

* * *

So, I have decided to redo my format on this story, and Yes, I realize I haven't updated in forever, but no lie, I actually lost the USB drive which had a good many follow-up chapters completed and so now I'm stuck in a rut of trying to reconfigure where I was going with this, so... yeah... I do promise to update soonish, but you can bet it will not be until after I have redone all the chapters to be in a format similar to this one, so, I hope that eases everyone's minds, and also I would love some input on how you think this format works. I refuse to change my writing style, I like the flow I have, but I will put names as headers so it is easier to figure out who's point of view we are seeing, compromising is always appreciated. Also, I did break the paragraphs up a bit as well, so that should ease some of the tension on everyone's eyes a bit. Thanks for sticking with me, even though I'm a bit of an airhead! :)


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Soon There Will be Laughter and Voices

* * *

Aang, Katara, Sokka

Upon breaking his icy prison, the boy in the iceberg stopped glowing and fell backwards, unconscious. Upon being awoken by the girl, much to the chagrin of her brother who was insisting it was some sort of trap the dragons had set up, he announced his name to be Aang, of the Air Nomads. The girl introduced herself as Katara of the Southern Water Tribe and gesturing toward her brother declared him to be Sokka of the Paranoid Tribe, to which the aforementioned glared angrily.

After revealing his huge bison to the amazed Water Tribe members, Aang asked,

"Where are you guys headed? Isn't the Southern Water Tribe that way?" he pointed in the direction opposite the way they had been traveling.

"None of your business, Baldy!" was the quick response he received from the elder sibling, and after the younger sibling was done bashing the elder's ribs in, she replied,

"We are headed to the Northern Water Tribe, and yes that is where the Southern Water Tribe... used to be." she added quietly, lowering her head to hide the tears that threatened to escape her eyes.

Her brother just placed a hand on her shoulder comfortingly as the meaning in her words finally sunk in for their new friend.

"It was destroyed!" he shouted, clearly shocked.

"Yeah, about a week ago, so we're going to rejoin our people in the North." Sokka replied, almost sounding civil, almost.

"Who destroyed it? Fire Nation?"

"Fire Nation! It was the dragons! The Fire Nation's been destroyed for a century, geez. Fire Nation...that's a good one. Ha!"

Sokka began laughing to himself as Katara tried to explain dragons and the Fire Nation's destruction to Aang, concluding that he must have been frozen in the ice for over a hundred years. Aang and Katara finally convinced Sokka that it would be best to just travel together on the bison, Appa, because it would be faster and safer than sailing the sea in a dingy, and so they set off for the Northern Water Tribe!

Blue Spirit, Little Girl

To his surprise, he'd actually found a survivor, a little girl. She looked to be about five or six with green eyes, but the amount of light coming from the fire within his grasp prevented him from observing any other distinguishing features. He started to approach her and when he did, she crawled away from him further into the cave until reaching the wall, she curled into a ball. As much as he didn't want to, he spoke,

"I'm not going to hurt you."

He hated to talk, because it gave him away, he had a telltale accent and any who knew enough about the rest of the accents would be able to tell he wasn't Earth Kingdom, Air Nomad, or Water Tribe. He could fake being from the Western Temple, except he lacked the distinguishing blue arrow tattoos. The girl stopped sniffling for a moment, as if trying to decide whether or not to trust him, then she crawled toward him. He reached for her hand and together they walked out of the cave.

It was approaching dusk, so he knew he didn't have much time, for whenever the sun set it seemed he just couldn't keep his eyes open. He figured it had something to do with what his wise uncle had told him ages ago, that firebenders rise with the sun, so then they rest with it too? Ah, well. He just knew he had to set up some kind of camp before sunset... and it looked like he was going to have a companion...

Aang, Katara, Sokka

She had noticed that the little monk had deftly avoided the Southern Air Temple, did he not want to go there? Hmm...Why would he not want to visit his own people after a hundred year long absence, because yes, he had been in that glacier for at least a hundred years. ...Had he been banished? Sokka suddenly throwing a pair of his pants into her face snapped her back into reality.

"Sew the holes up for me!" he demanded and she had half-a-mind to throw them back and tell him to sew it himself, but she was bored and had nothing else to do so she glared but sewed.

She had successfully repaired all his clothing within an hour's time (Of course he had added more after she finished the pants!) and was settling back into a daze when he shrieked,

"NOOOOO!"

Aang almost jumped clear off of Appa, who had jumped himself jostling everybody and all the belongings in his saddle, and Katara jumped and shrieked

"AAAH!"

"La, Sokka! Geez, what was that for?" she huffed at him, regathering and assorting all their belongings again in the saddle and trying to regain her composure as well.

"I accidentally ate all of my meat...there's none left." he sniffled in reply then took on a tone of authority as he instructed Aang to land Appa on the island that he spotted below them.

Katara just rolled her eyes, but she did think it would be nice to stretch her legs a bit, so she didn't disagree. A few moments later, however, the whole GAang agreed that it would have been better had they not descended in that particular spot.

Blue Spirit, Little Girl

After gathering some wood for fire and starting one with a well placed burst of flame, he pulled off his pack and began searching through it, cataloging what he had, a few pieces of jerky, his bedroll, and some...unknown...fruit? He tossed the last one into the fire and he could have sworn he saw smoke rise in the shape of a skull.

He turned to the girl, she was shivering, was it cold or shock? He decided to set up his bedroll and let her use it, what was a little dirt anyway? She was just a kid after all... better let her have the jerky too, it is unsure when it was she ate the last time after all. He laid down on the hard rocky earth, then he realized he still had his mask on, hmm... whatever, it didn't really matter if she saw his face he finally decided after eyeballing her suspiciously.

He removed it and set it by his head, the girl crawled cautiously toward him and grasped the mask before moving back to the bedroll. He was about to yell at her to give the mask back, but she was just harmlessly caressing it all over and he was just... too tired...to...care...

Aang, Katara, Sokka

Upon descending, Appa had noticed a shadow below him in the water. He could only see it faintly and his animal intellect told him that he was far enough above the water to be bothered by anything in the water. He was wrong. The serpentine creature rose out of the waves sending the water thrashing up the bay violently as the water also rose to drench the bison and his passengers.

"I told you that if we flew around we'd get EATEN by a DRAGON!" Sokka yelled above the crashing waves.

"Well, if YOU hadn't run out of meat and MADE us land here, WE wouldn't BE in this situation!" Katara responded angrily.

"Quiet guys! Appa needs to concentrate!" Aang added and then they noticed what a marvelous job the chunky bison was doing to evade the crushing jaws of the sea monster.

He couldn't evade the blast of water that blew off his passengers though, all three of them. The cold rushed through her entire body as the water seeped into her clothes and hair. Other unpleasantness rushed her as well, her eyes stung and her ears filled with pressure for a brief moment after the plunge, when she surfaced she was met with another unpleasant feeling, abject horror. She was staring down the sea creature's nose, straight into its cruel eyes. She hoped it wouldn't be too painful...

Blue Spirit, Little Girl

Wet. What was wet? His chest and his side oh, and some of his back. What was wet on his chest, side, and part of his back? Hmmmm...! He bolted awake to the sight of the girl laying her head on his chest with her arm stretched comfortably across as well, she was drooling...but that didn't explain why his side and back were wet...?

Oh, Agni, you have to be kidding!

ARGH!

He was doing his best not to scream. A bed-wetter. Seriously? He rose up from under her head and outstretched arm, letting her roll unceremoniously onto her back with a plop. Water, water, water... he needed a stream, pond, heck, a waterfall would work at this point! Finally he heard the trickling of water, found a small creek and followed it to a river where it emptied. The river was crystal clear and relatively calm, it had a small waterfall on the right. Perfect. He plunged right in letting the cold of the water remind him he was getting clean.

He cleaned his clothes and strew them over some tree branches to dry, he would finish drying them later but for now he had to scrub his skin raw. He wasn't much for gross stuff, a bit obsessed with cleanliness, not that he would admit it. He was in the process of scrubbing his scalp, just in case, when the little girl appeared clutching his mask carefully in her hands. He immediately began to wish for his clothes. But why? She was just a little girl, she probably still bathed with her parents... but he was NOT her parent and her presence bothered him now.

That's when he noticed that she was turning her head from side to side and when she stopped she had a confused look on her face as well as a few tears in her eyes. He looked closer, her eyes were unusually light...he pulled his hand up and waved hugely in her direction, no response. She was blind.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three: You're the One I Have Decided, Who's One of My Kind

* * *

Aang, Katara, Sokka

Just as she was sure she was going to meet La and Tui, something distracted the creature, well, "something" being a really well aimed air-slice. The beast did not approve of this new annoyance and was soon headed toward her monk friend. She tried to deter it by sending all the currents in front of it out toward the open sea, but it was still gaining on him.

She turned to see something dashing along the beach and down both peninsulas that flanked the bay on either side, green flashes moving swiftly toward the creature. The one nearest Katara on the left jumped and the one on the right followed. They landed briefly on the monster's snout and splashed some liquid substance into its gleaming green eyes. The creature reeled backward, and as it did the two jumped back toward the water. The creature submerged and disappeared into the sea.

Landing in the water they began to swim toward the monk and the girl. After helping them reach shore, the two unknown warriors grabbed Katara and Aang's arms and wrenched them behind their backs tying them in that uncomfortable position. Katara looked up to see the third had captured Sokka before they put a cover over her head as they had done to the other two already.

Blue Spirit, Little Girl

He had reached his clothes and was finishing pulling his pants on when he actually stepped his foot out of the water, as soon as he did the girl turned and faced his direction. She turned so fast and so... creepily... that he couldn't help but let out a startled "whoa." She giggled as she ran over to him, which come to think of it, was the first sound she'd made except for crying. And there she stood...staring blankly at him...not making any noise what-so-ever... "What's your name kid?" More silence. Great. "...Toph." she finally said, so quietly he thought he had imagined it. "Toph? Alright let's get you cleaned up... and give me my mask."

Aang, Katara, Kyoshi Warriors, Sokka,

When his head was finally uncovered, he was tied up to a pole with three beautiful women wearing green warrior kimonos and a older man surrounding it. To his left was Katara and to his right was Aang, leaving him in the middle.

"Where are the rest of your gang?" the cute one in the middle spoke up...

_There's something vaguely familiar about her... oh well, have to play this cool._

"Look, babe, I don't know what you're talking about but how about you untie me and we talk under more comfortable conditions." with a wink and a smile. A_h yeah, I'm good_.

"Babe? Did you just call me 'babe'? You chauvinistic-" and luckily the other girls restrained her before she actually made contact with Sokka's face.

A female's touch seemed needed on this matter, so she spoke up,

"My name's Katara, that's Aang and my brother Sokka is the moron. We don't have anymore people with us. We were stopping to gather supplies and stretch our legs when that... thing attacked us. Would you be willing to release us?" she gave a huge smile at the end of her explanation, because it is general knowledge in the Water Tribes that a smile is better to end a statement than a scowl when you want something.

Blue Spirit, Toph

He couldn't help it. He really couldn't, she reminded him so much of his little sister, before they grew apart. Not in personality, and least of all the way she acted, so quiet, but she reminded him none-the-less. Maybe it was her black hair, which was much longer than he had originally figured, seeing its true length which extended to the bottom of her back. He finished cleaning her up, and quickly heating up her clothes to dry them, got her dressed again.

He grabbed his shirt and they walked back to their camp. He looked at the bedroll, it seemed fine, so he rolled it up and packed it in his pack. The fire was already out, so he grabbed her hand and started walking in a direction which he hoped would lead him to another town, there he would leave the girl. She deserved to be with her own people, right?

Aang, Katara, Kyoshi Warrior, Sokka

It was nightfall and they were still tied to the post, so much for the female touch! These people were crazy! Kept going on about them remaining tied up until they told them where the rest were or something like that. Whatever. She just wanted to get the feeling back in her hands. That was it! If she had to break her thumbs, she was escaping! She began struggling then stopped, the sound of Sokka and Aang yelling "stop" at her convincing her maybe that wasn't the best plan. But they couldn't just stay here forever.

Then like an answer to her prayers the girl who seemed to be the leader of the group of warriors appeared and quickly began to cut their bonds.

"Why are you doing this?" Aang asked, she and Sokka knew "not to look a gift ostrich-horse in the mouth."

"Because, even though I don't believe your story, I'm not cruel enough to leave you people to the mercy of the dragon."

"Which one is it?" Katara gasped.

"The blue one." the girl replied stoically.

Aang hadn't realized it made a difference which dragon was attacking, apparently it did. _Interesting._

"Come on!" she said cutting the last bits of rope that bound the trio to the tree, and they followed immediately. They were tearing down the main street, when,

CRAP!

The blue dragon landed right in front of them spewing blue fire all around them. They were trapped.

Blue Spirit, Toph

In the end he had led them to a beach, and after a few hours of following the coastline with the sun starting its descent, he decided to stop for the day. Telling her to stay put, he went into the woods to gather firewood and, hopefully, something edible.

It was sad, but the only thing remotely edible in the forest was nuts. Three different kinds...Two different kinds, the third kind were actually rocks, but it was better than starving and they hadn't eaten anything all day, actually he hadn't eaten since the day before... Suddenly the nuts were much more appetizing.

After their meager meal of nuts, and one or two rocks, he settled down on his back and began drifting off to sleep, then remembering the previous night, added,

"Hey, you stay over there. I don't want a repeat of this morning tomorrow, okay?"

Aang, Katara, Kyoshi Warrior, Sokka

Katara felt her body hit the ground before she even realized Aang had pushed her down with a blast of air, fire blasting above her as she ducked close to the ground. Regaining her feet she searched the area for a trace of water... there! A rain collector sat not two feet from her and with a quick twist of her hands the water was drawn inescapably toward her. Aang was in the air at the start of the fight and was serving as a very good distraction, so Sokka and the warrior had drawn weapons, Sokka his boomerang and club-sword, the warrior two...fans?

Whereas the dragon was spewing it's fire at the monk, its tail and clawed feet were whirling about ferociously keeping Sokka's hands full blocking. In the split second between blocks, he threw his boomerang toward the dragon's head. He managed to cut off a few whiskers and leave a small gash on its nose, but that only proved to make the dragon more enraged. Katara rushed to her brother's side, whipping the dragon back with her water. Swirling it around with her hands, she froze several small ice spears and hurled them at the enraged gargant. As the ice sliced into the dragon's side, it lost all inhibitions and went into a blind rampage.

The warrior had been dodging the dragon's attacks, but as it began to lash out wildly, she saw this as her chance to strike. She leaped over its thrashing tail, landed on it, and jumped to burning roof of the building that was near her. Deftly landing, she sprinted down the length of the building and jumped to the next. She continued this pattern until she neared the front of the dragon then she yelled above the roaring fire for the Air Nomad.

Aang flew over to her with his glider and grasped her outstretched hand swinging her into the air. She used the momentum to catapult herself to the top of the dragon's head. Landing on its nose, she drew her sword and drove it into the fire-breather's eye. She back-flipped off its nose as it started to ascend toward the sky, the monk catching her as she fell and placing her softly on the ground.

The dragon, with the sword still protruding from its eye, flew upward toward the clouds and began moving in a very flowing motion sparks crackling and screeching around its mouth. When the dragon stopped moving it opened its mouth and released a beam of lightning directly at the foursome.

Blue Spirit, Toph

Both jolted awake at the thunderous clap of superheated air crashing violently into cooler air. She gave a small cry and crawled quickly over to him, could her blind eyes but see the irrepressible blue glow that had taken over the sky she might have been as mesmerized as he was now. As the blue light faded, a white light overtook the sky. He had heard tales, but could it really be...?

Aang, Katara, Kyoshi Warrior, Sokka

As the lightning crashed toward them, suddenly Aang's tattoos began emanating a white light and the earth jumped up around them and swallowed them in its depths. He could hear the lightning crash into their barrier and he swore he could feel the electricity pulsing around them. Aang slowly ascended into the sky, releasing the earthen barrier from around them, and he heard his sister whisper,

"Avatar."

She had a strange gleam in her eyes, it reminded him of the starlit sea, and he didn't like it. After Aang had risen to right in front of the dragon's face the dragon's eyes lit up with a blue light. Time stopped, and suddenly Aang was himself again, still hovering in front of the dragon. She wasn't sure why everything had stopped, and even less sure why she was still able to move around freely, but she focused all her attention on Aang and the dragon, who was now...talking?

"Avatar Aang, it falls to you to restore the balance. Although the dragons were right in their attempt to restore the balance, their method was doomed never to succeed. The eternal flame must be restored."

"How do I restore it?"

"You must find the... last... Fire..." the strange voice faded away before finishing.

As soon as the voice left the dragon rose and flew away as quickly as it had come. Aang rejoined his friends who were now in motion, time had restarted.

"Aang what did the voice mean, 'restore the balance'?" she asked, and was met with skeptical looks from her brother and their new ally.

"I don't know, Katara."

Blue Spirit, Toph

He woke to the sensation of fingers sliding carefully up and down the left side of his face. Without thinking he reached up and wrenched the hand away from his face, but she didn't cry, instead she spoke,

"Is that why you wear the mask?"

"What?"

"Do you wear the mask to cover your scar?"

"...No."

He lied and she caught him off guard by catching him,

"You're lying."

"Why does it matter? Yeah, I cover my scar with a mask, so what?" he getting angry at her by now.

"Mister, can you let go, you're burning me." she said plainly, almost like it was annoying rather than painful.

He released her hand and was shocked by what she said next,

"You're just like me."

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki

"WHAT? Aang's the AVATAR!"

"Yes, Sokka. La, you're thick. We've been explaining that for hours, Suki already got it."

Suki, the warrior who had been fighting alongside them yesterday, just nodded her head in response to Katara's words.

"I'm not sure what the dragon meant by 'balance' but maybe we can get information from the Northern Air Temple, the older monks might know something. Besides it's on the way to the Northern Water Tribe."

Aang said the last part almost as though he were an ostrich-horse sales man trying to convince them it was a good idea.

"If you succeed in restoring this 'balance,' then the dragons will stop attacking?" the village elder asked, his eyes stern but slightly concerned.

"It seems that way, but I can't guarantee it." Aang replied sinking his head a little at the prospect it might all be in vain.

"In that case," the elder began, "Suki, I want you to go with them."

"B-but why?" she barely stuttered out, she was so taken aback by the request.

She was the best of the Kyoshi Warriors, she was their leader! It was unheard of that a Kyoshi Warrior leave the island of Kyoshi!

"I want you to go because you are the strongest of the Kyoshi Warriors, and I want you to help the Avatar in his quest to restore balance and stop the dragons. You four have brought hope to the island by fending off the blue dragon, and now I am sending you out, Suki, to bring hope to the world."

Blue Spirit, Toph

"I'm what? Just like you? How?"

He was starting to think that maybe the girl was crazy, after all she showed no fear or hurt when he had accidentally started to burn her hand. The only thing she had been remotely afraid of was the strange lightning last night, and she was crying in that cave when he first found her, but had she been scared then? She spoke interrupting his thoughts,

"You're not normal and neither am I, mister. People treat you different, well, they treat me different too. We're the same." she calmly explained and as she finished a smile crept across her face.

Her logic was so simple, but he figured she had a point, kind of. The only reason he was treated different was because he was the last of a hated race that was believed to have caused the dragons' rampage, as he heard it.

"Yup, I've decided, mister, we're the same kind of people." she finished with a smile.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki

"Okay, everybody ready?" Aang asked in his cheery way.

Suki was not sure if she would ever be ready to ride the flying bison, but she just said "yeah" weakly.

"Yup, we're cool...wait, Katara where's your necklace, the one that was mom's?" Sokka quizzed with his head tilted.

Katara reached her hand up to her throat where the necklace used to hang, then searched their belongings when she discovered it to be missing. They all searched the town where they had fought, but nothing. It was gone.

"Do you think, nah, never-mind." Sokka began and Katara urged him to finish the thought,

"Do you think you lost it when we were attacked by the..."

"Unagi."

"Right, Unagi. (Thanks Suki.)"

She couldn't remember, but after searching the bay fervently, it was concluded that it would be lost forever.

Blue Spirit, Toph

They had been walking for a few hours when he noticed something glimmering just ahead on the sand. He walked over to see what it could be and discovered a small choker with the design of a stylized wave on it.

"You want this?" he asked the little girl who had been trailing behind him.

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, yes, I messed with the ages a bit, you may have noticed. But I just felt like Toph would be cuter as a six year old, and yes she is going to become more Toph-like in the future. I felt like Zuko should meet up with Toph because they are really great friends in the show, and in this storyline Zuko, like, HATES earthbenders, so, yeah him meeting Toph was a good way for him to not hate them all. Reviews are appreciated, even if you review just to say you hate me! (Personally, I think it's funny.)


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four: Take a Bite of My Heart Tonight

* * *

Blue Spirit, Toph

After passing through that crazy town where the hated the Avatar for some strange reason, they had continued along the coast for a few days. He had decided to go to the Northern Air Temple and leave the girl in their care, especially after he saw the crazies that lived in the Earth Kingdom. He couldn't bring himself to leave her just anywhere, but the Air Nomads were different.

They actually cared for life and all that, so they were the best bet, well, he could just keep her with him...No! That was out of the question! As soon as she figured out he was a firebender, she would hate him and he didn't want to face that, so she had to go. Steeling his resolve, he pressed forward scooping the girl up on his back, piggy-back style, for she had begun to fall behind from fatigue.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki

Although the original plan was to head straight for the Northern Air Temple, they had taken a quick break outside an Earth Kingdom town which just happened to have an event called "Avatar Day" happening that day. The end result of the excursion being Aang and Suki behind bars, a week before their sentencing. Suki was all for breaking out and kicking the crap out of anyone who got in her way in the process, but Aang had said he would rather deal with their justice system rather than giving them more ammunition for their "Avatar Day" burnings. It wasn't exactly his best idea...

Blue Spirit, Toph

He had felt an unexplainable uneasiness for about an hour, and when he saw the two men approaching him from the north, he realized why. They wore the familiar dark green robes and sedge shade hats that he had become quite accustomed to during his captivity. He dodged their first attack, their rock gloves shooting just past him on the right, then two more joined their number.

_Hmm_... four against one would be pretty tough, besides the fact that his hands were occupied holding the little girl on his back, so he guessed he would have to lose them somehow. He charged straight at them, leaping over the wave of earth they hurled toward him, and broke left in a quick sprint. He turned it into a full run once he hit the down slope of a hill.

"Sir, should we pursue him?" The four asked a brown-haired young man who appeared from behind them.

"Nah, let the fire-starter run for a little while, by sunset he'll be out of fight anyway."

He replied shifting the piece of straw to the other side of his mouth.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki

Why was she even helping him with this? It was one of the craziest ideas he'd ever had, but he'd convinced Aang to go along with it, so what could it hurt? That was the reason she had Suki's Kyoshi Warrior outfit out, and that was the reason she was making three copies of it. Sokka had come up with the brilliant idea of all four of them dressing up as Kyoshi Warriors in order to summon the spirit of Avatar Kyoshi so she would explain what had happened, like, 400 years ago. I mean really, couldn't these people just give it a rest? Who cared what happened 400 years ago?

Blue Spirit, Toph

The sun was setting but he couldn't stop here, he had to continue. He knew they wouldn't give up so easily, heck, they were probably tracking him right now...they could even be here at this very moment...now he was just being paranoid. He was slowing down, his body screaming for sleep, but he continued on. The girl on his back was starting to get heavy, she hadn't asked any questions about the events of the day though. Did this girl fear nothing?

***Snap***

Something was to their left.

***Snap***

To their right.

***Snap***

Behind?

***Snap***

They were surrounded. He slid the girl off his back as the brown-haired man walked forward followed by the four earthbenders and two more non-benders, one armed with twin Dao swords the other a chain with spiked orbs on the ends.

"Jet." he growled sinisterly, sending a shiver up the girl's spine for the first time since they'd met.

She felt him enter a defensive stance as the stranger spoke,

"I'm here to collect you, y'know, the boss wasn't to pleased with your escape, oh, I should say the new boss, you killed the last one, didn't you? Don't worry, you've actually already met the new boss, he saw you almost every day. Actually, wasn't he the one who held the iron to your head? I mean I know the general ordered it, but-"

"SHUT IT!" he shouted at the man angrily, but she could sense the fear that was underlying his anger and hatred.

She slipped into a defensive position she had learned from "watching" the badger-moles and waited for the enemies to make a move. Her companion seemed to be doing the same, he moved suddenly taking her with him and when she felt the rocky glove around his arm she understood why. She placed her hand over the rock and it conformed around her delicate arm instantly.

He placed her back down just in time to dodge a fatal blow from the man with the swords, the sword only barely catching his side, leaving a shallow wound on his left. He countered with a firm elbow to the man's nose, breaking it, and followed through with a spinning round-house kick to the same place effectively crushing the man's face so much it was unrecognizable.

The man dropped and as he did, her friend, now armed with two Dao swords, sprung to the side to avoid the spiked end of the chain that had been hurled his way. She waited quietly, waiting for her opponents to make a move...

_There! _

Her opponent was trying to enclose her in a earthy barrier...

_Yeah, right!_

She slide her left foot around and the earth missed her entirely, she twisted her right hand and the ground beneath him turned to quicksand and he sunk up to his neck. She curled into a ball and earth walls rose around her protecting her from the rock gloves that they had so carelessly tried to catch her with, and touching the ground with her hands sent stone pillars up knocking their chins and sending them flying backward. Now, where was the fourth?

Her friend had been dodging effectively, the chain landing near him but not catching him. The man wielding the chain changed tactics and grabbed the middle of the chain sending both ends toward the other. Big mistake. Taking the two swords, he stabbed them in between the chain's links, pinning the chain to the earth. The man used both his hands to try and pull the chain free and this was just the reaction her friend had been hoping for. He jumped onto the chain and ran down the length of it, reaching the man at the other end he kicked him in the head four? Five times? Before back-flipping back to his newly acquired swords. The man who spoken before drew his twin hook swords with a heavy sigh and charged toward them.

The fourth earthbender was cunning, using the time her friend had felled the heavy man with chains as a distraction, he sent a wave of earth toward her followed by three consecutive waves. He must have thought that she couldn't handle that many deflections so rapidly after one another, she could but she decided on another choice of action. Sinking into the earth she avoided the four waves headed for her and she jumped out of the earth just beneath the man, head-butting his chin on her way up. With a quick twist of her hands he was confined to the earth, his hands bound together and face sticking out of the plain.

He was having a much harder time than she had, the adrenaline that pumped through his cells beginning to lessen and with it the responsiveness his body had to his commands. Slowly, but surely, he was losing. Jet was taking full advantage of his opponent's lessening condition, and had started to toy with him.

Jet had inflicted several minor cuts, he had done the same to Jet, but now Jet had set his sights to slowly making those wounds bigger, deeper. The cut on his side had in particular attracted Jet's attention, and he had set about kicking his side and aiming his slashes in the general vicinity. His opponent's stubbornness was something else, and while Jet was enjoying himself, he decided the best course of action was to end the fight now.

The girl had finished off the last of his men and the sunrise was in less than an hour, which meant his opponent would stand a fighting chance at that point. So after delivering a particularly powerful kick to his opponents side, making said opponent gasp and moan in pain, Jet jumped back to the girl, pulling her up off the earth by her hair and held one of his swords to her throat as she shrieked in pain.

"Surrender or she dies."

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki

She wasn't sure about the plan, but she had to admit, seeing Sokka in a dress was worth going along with it and letting Katara make copies of her costume. She was told to be quiet several times, and though she knew this whole thing was going to turn into a sham, she was actually enjoying this. Aang actually was able to summon Avatar Kyoshi, much to her surprise. She would have to make him do this again so she could talk with her home's namesake, but for now she had to get them out of the mess the Avatar had invited on them.

Avatar Kyoshi basically confessed to the whole murder thing and that made the people mad, their little ringleader had already made it clear that they were doomed either way though, and after they received their sentence from the spin wheel they had for punishment She launched into action. She grabbed their leader by the collar and brought one of her deadly fans to rest on his shoulder, dangerously close to his throat, before speaking,

"Now, I don't know about you guys, but I don't give a crap about something that happened 400 years ago. But if you insist on punishing us, I suggest you learn from the past and not threaten a Kyoshi Warrior. After all, Avatar Kyoshi killed your leader then, so if history repeats itself..." she trailed of and raised her fan sinisterly in front of their leader's face.

"Right, who cares about something that happened 400 years ago anyway?" he said nervously as Suki smiled, very pleased with herself.

Blu Spirit, Toph

When he woke he found himself next to a metal box that was crying and screaming

"Let me out, or I swear by Agni I'll kill you all! You sons of wolf-bats!"

... he really should watch his mouth around the kid. He was in a small wagon that was being pulled by two ostrich-horses, they were headed north-east? No, just north. He attempted to get up so he could see who the driver was, but the pain in his side stopped him. He observed the wound was still bleeding slowly and was unaddressed as well, but then he hadn't actually expected them to address it either. His vision was being slowly blurred by the blood flowing down his forehead from the head injury he received when they had knocked him unconscious, following his surrender.

Every bump in the road was excruciating, but he finally managed to see the driver, it was Jet. How lucky. A little well balanced revenge was in order after all. Pulling his manacled hands up, he slide them over Jet's throat bracing himself backward until Jet stopped struggling. Jet had managed to cry out to his followers who were a few paces ahead before passing out, so he had little time to be gentle. He shoved the metal box out the back of the wagon and grabbed the Dao swords along with his pack from the front seat and jumped out himself.

"Sorry!" he shouted as he kicked the box down the hill and ran after it lighting a well placed fire in the wagon before he went.

By the time Jet's minions got there and retrieved their leader's unconscious body from the fire the two were long gone. After they reached the bottom of the steep incline he summoned all his power and burned through the metal box's side, at least enough to pull the girl out. Now, about his cuffs... he would need to leave her behind for that part.

He told her to wait there for him and he disappeared into the morning dawn settling over the forest. He wandered a good distance from her and commenced to burn through his manacles, the molten metal meeting with his skin causing him to wince and whimper, until finally he could not endure it anymore and shouted out his pain into the woods. The pain was clouding his thoughts and his vision was almost completely blotted out by red when he stumbled upon the white-haired girl in the midst of her morning bath. She shrieked as he tumbled forward, unconscious from loss of blood.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki

After the end of the new "Avatar Day" celebration, the GAang decided against anymore detours and were determined to head directly for the Northern Air Temple. But really, they shouldn't have let Sokka direct them, because the day trip turned into three days...

Blue Spirit, Toph, White-haired Girl

The sight that greeted him when he awoke was a pair of blue eyes staring down into his golden ones. The girl who owned those beautiful light blue orbs had long white hair tied into two thick braids that graced her shoulders and some sort of circle-like thing behind her head that released her hair at the bottom letting it flow behind her shoulders, her skin was flawless but tan, and her lips were so perfect that he just wanted to...

_Wait! _

Where was the little girl? He started to rise, but the white-haired girl stopped him saying,

"You shouldn't try to move yet."

"There was a girl..." he managed, although he had just been reminded of his wound to his side.

"She's here. She heard your scream and followed you here somehow."

"Good..." he whispered as he slipped back to sleep, dreaming of the White-haired goddess he had just met.

* * *

Author's Note: Like that fight scene? How about Jet? I hope none of you peeps like him cause... well... But I can't give that away! Anyhoo... Yes, I wanted to do a ZukoxYue Fic, so yay! And although there is initial attraction, it is gonna take Zuko a while to actually fess up to it. (no... Zuko doesn't share his feelings? Ludicrous...) So, whadda ya think? Reviews please!


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five: Time Together is Just Never Quite Enough

* * *

Blue Spirit, Toph, White-Haired Girl

He woke with the morning sun to find he was surrounded, his face had flushed as he noticed the white-haired girl next to him (he had become quite used to the six year old on his other side), he had bolted up and walked away his face then completely red.

She introduced herself as Yue, and he could tell she was Water Tribe, more than likely Northern Water Tribe at that. She had healed his wounds with her waterbending. He had to consider the irony of the fact that he was traveling with two of the peoples who hated his kind with such passion they had deemed it necessary to eradicate his race...

That was yesterday, today the three of them were waiting for an air bison...taxi? Well, anyway, it was going to take them up to the Northern Air Temple... wait, why was Yue coming?

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Stranger, Suki

"We FINALLY made it!" Sokka shouted, much to the displeasure of some monks who were trying to meditate.

"We would have been here a lot sooner except someone can't tell north from south." Katara replied dryly to her over-enthusiastic brother.

"I'm gonna go talk to the elder!" Aang called out as he ran off.

"Well, I guess we get to explore."

"Hey! Are you guys new?" a new voice chirped behind them.

Blue Spirit, Toph, Yue

After disembarking, two of them stood in awe, the third couldn't see what was so interesting so she proceeded to prod a bug with her finger.

"Oh! Hey! I never got your name." she finally spoke up and catching him off guard, she actually got it.

"Zuko..." he replied, but the look on his face after he'd said it made her think he hadn't really meant to.

There was something different about Zuko, but what exactly it was, she couldn't tell. When she had first laid eyes on him, he seemed familiar somehow, but that was silly because she had never met anyone outside the Northern Water Tribe.

She would have to get to the bottom of this mystery, but for now she had to hide. A boy wearing the customary "wolf's tail" hairdo had just appeared ahead of them. He seemed to be racing a boy in a wheel-chair, and before she thought she jumped behind Zuko grabbing the back of his shirt to center herself behind him.

"W-what are you doing?" he barely managed out as red overtook his face.

"Hide me." she simply replied, then thinking about how close to him she was now, she blushed as well.

"What are you guys doing?" Toph asked quite confused by the way their heart-rates had gotten suddenly faster.

Sokka, Teo, Yue, Zuko

Sokka couldn't believe how fast this Teo kid was, and on wheels no less! He was soon out of breath, and so they stopped.

"Looks like we're at the visitor entrance." Teo observed, more to himself than for Sokka, but it prompted a response from Sokka just the same.

"Visitor entrance?"

"Yeah, where non-airbenders come into the temple. Not every temple has one, y'know. Oh, hey! Check out the newcomers!"

Sokka turned to observe the new people as Teo finished. There was a boy who was around his age, a little girl, and...someone behind the boy. The boy was dressed in black...but he had pointy shoes. This made Sokka laugh audibly while pointing, he had never seen anyone in pointy shoes before.

The boy seemed to be fighting with whoever was behind him, but as soon as he heard Sokka laugh he fixed a glare on him that would have made the dragons uncomfortable. As the boy leveled his death gaze at him, Sokka noticed the scar that covered the left side of the boy's face. As he stared blankly at the scar, analyzing it, when he noticed the boy was angrier now and heading toward him.

Who does that punk think he is? First he POINTS and laughs, laughing randomly isn't as conspicuous as pointing and laughing, no, then he has the audacity to stare at a stranger's scar, what was he some backwoods hick? No manners! Well, he was gonna learn some manners, by Agni, if it was the last thing he did.

Ignoring Yue who was tugging at his arm and pleading with him to just ignore the boy, he strode over to where the boy stood with his friend. Rearing his fist back, he was going to punch the boy straight in his idiotic face, but Yue grabbed his fist in her soft, delicate hands and looked at him pleadingly. He wasn't worth it anyway...

Aang, Avatar Roku

Meditating was hard. He had so many questions he wanted to ask, but the old monk said meditation would calm the soul and the answers to his questions would reveal themselves in time... and a bunch of other mumbo-jumbo.

What was that "rooarlrt" sound? Didn't that monk know that the Avatar had seniority? So maybe, he should be the one deciding whether or not he needed to meditate. There's that weird sound again...concentrate. Ohm. Ohhmm. Ohhhmm... this isn't working. Hey, the sound stopped, interesting. Okay, back to meditation...

"Aang?" At last! He'd made contact, now to keep calm and maintain it. Phew.

"Yes? Who is this?"

"Avatar Roku."

"Avatar Roku! What was the balance the dragon spoke of?"

"Aang, that was not the dragon. The dragon was merely transmitting a message from its master."

"Who is the dragon's master?"

"Aang, in order to fulfill your destiny you must master all the elements, you must be a fully realized Avatar. The gods in mortal form. The world is in chaos, in more ways than one, young Avatar, you must seek out and find-"

"Avatar Roku!"

Gone. What was Avatar Roku going to say? Who are the "gods in mortal form?" ...Meditation is confusing!

Toph

It was the most curious sound she had ever heard! It was a cute almost purr, little chortle, and it was coming from...there! She walked away from the other two, and was soon in some sort of hollowed out partition of the temple. She was walking along listening for the sound when suddenly a voice beside her asking if she was lost startled her so much she nearly jumped through the roof.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

Yeah, whatever. Freaking airbenders, never touching the ground and sailing through the air, who in their right mind would want to do that all day? Maybe if she ignored him he'd go away.

"Do you need help with something?"

"...No."

"Okay, well, be careful. They unload all kinds of stuff down here, don't let it fall on you."

Yeah, if anything fell on her, she'd earthbend herself out of the way or just shoot it back upward. What was this place though? It was much bigger than she'd originally thought, which was surprising considering her talent.

"Catch it! Catch it!" she heard some of the monks yell and before she realized it there was something fuzzy on her shoulders touching her neck.

"Oh, thanks young lady. We have been trying to catch that lemur all afternoon."

"Why?"

"Well, he was accidentally shut in a container of sea peaches from the Southern Air Temple, when he got here he started to take food from people and cause general mayhem."

"You're not going to kill it are you?"

"No, miss, all life is sacred. An Air Nomad would never take a life."

"Can I keep him?"

"I don't see why not. Are you gonna take care of him?"

"Yeah, duh."

"Okay, what are you going to name him?"

"Momo." And with that she took off, back toward the central temple building where her two companions waited for her. She arrived just in time to catch the tail-end of his conversation, which sent tears streaming violently down her cheeks.

Katara, Suki

Suki and Katara had given up searching for Sokka and their newest acquaintance, Teo. Teo was the son of a mechanist who had traveled to the temple to conduct his experiments, he was trying to invent a flying balloon that could carry people, much like the flying bisons, only accessible to everyone.

Whatever. Suki was much to preoccupied with the selection of trinkets and gadgets for sale in the market area of the temple. The markets took a little getting used to, as they were located right beside the training grounds where the young monks would practice, sending more than one stray air current hurtling through the stalls.

Most of the vendors were prepared, shielding the most expensive merchandise with the less expensive products, others would simply tie everything down, one poor merchant didn't and he had to watch as his merchandise was blasted halfway across the Earth Kingdom, shouting,

"My cabbages!"

Suki sidestepped just in time to miss a dark-haired boy rush past her followed by a white-haired girl dragging a dark-haired little girl behind her. She was shouting "stop" and "wait, let's talk about this" at him. Finally he turned around, his posture and countenance reminding Suki very much of a cornered armadillo-tiger, he looked almost feral as he finally responded with,

"What's there to talk about!"

The two lapsed into a very public argument as she responded with, "How about you abandoning Toph? She's like a little sister to you, I can see it!"

"I'm not her family!"

"You care! I know you do Zuko! Stop trying to pretend you don't!"

"I do care! Which is why I'm leaving her with the monks, they'll take care of her!"

"Stop it! Stop justifying the fact that you're abandoning her! I bet you have no idea what it feels like to be-" the girl stopped apparently noticing the sudden intensity in the boy's eye.

It was almost like they were on fire, speaking of which had it gotten hotter? Katara had been drawn over from the other side of the market, she could hear most of the fight, but she arrived just in time to see the boy storm off angrily and the two girls head off in the direction from which she had come. As the white-haired girl passed her, she and Katara exchanged glances for a split second, and Katara could have sworn she had met her before, she was so familiar.

Zuko

He was doing the right thing. She didn't belong with him, heck, no one did. He was the last of an extinct race, he didn't need anyone and he didn't want anyone. After all it was their people who decided it over a hundred years ago...

He was alone, and alone he would stay. He looked around quickly, then ascertaining no one was there, he slid the familiar mask out of his pack and over his face and sunk into a bending stance. He was glad he had gotten the chance to practice, he couldn't do this while traveling with others, yet another reason for him to travel alone.

He began to wonder how they would have reacted to him being a firebender, they probably would have reacted the same as those goons from Ba Sing Se, fear then hatred. He was just doing to them what they would surely do to him if they ever figured out who he really was. It wasn't worth the risk.

Aang, Blue Spirit

Well, at least he had a place to start. The elder had said that maybe he could get a better connection with the spirit world at the spirit oasis at the north pole. At the least it was a start.

He had to become a fully realized Avatar now though, before the dragons destroyed everything! Maybe Katara could teach him some waterbending, she was pretty good at it. But where was he going to get an earthbending teacher, let alone firebending teacher! The entire Fire Nation had been destroy...ed...

He couldn't help but stare in wonder as the figure in front of his very eyes shot fire from his closed fists. Aang rubbed his eyes and the figure was gone. It must have been a spirit, after all no one has a face like that, blue with huge white teeth. Oh well, he should gather up the rest of the GAang so they could prepare to leave.

Yue, Toph

It was just wrong. Why did he want to do this to himself? Couldn't he see that they were his friends? So why did he want to get rid of them? Yue stopped dead in her tracks as the flash of red descended from the sky. Immediately after the smell of burning flesh and the ungodly screams of those who were being burned alive overtook her senses. Her fear threatened to consume her, but she felt the small hand nestled in her own and steeled her nerves. Slowly she backed away and turned to leave, but it would seem the dragon had other ideas.

* * *

Author's Note: Yeah, the spacing and paragraph structure is off, and I am terrible at writing filler, but if I didn't write the filler my story would make no sense... And yes, I added Teo just cause. How about Momo? Didja see that coming? As always, Reviews are appreciated!

...P.S. (Did you guys notice anything about the chapter titles, other than the fact that they're freaking long?)


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six: 1! 2! 3! Take My Hand and Come With Me

* * *

Sokka, Zuko

Leaping down the stairs, he continued at his break-neck speed through the temple. Yue and Toph were out there alone...because he had abandoned them! He was too scared by the what-ifs he hadn't considered the fact that...

His search for them took precedence as he entered the flame entrenched market area. He continued running and almost couldn't stop when a brown-haired boy appeared out of the smoke, right in front of him. It was that punk from earlier!

"Hey! You seen those girls that were with me? One with white hair, one with black?" he shouted above the roaring flames.

"No, You seen two brunettes?"

"No."

"If you see them, make sure they stay with you, alright?" they both said in unison and went their separate ways.

Sokka, Suki

She couldn't breathe, see, or even cry out for help, but she could hear. She could hear the roaring flames, hear the unholy cries of those being burned alive, and it made her want to puke. She could also feel. Feel the fire that singed her dress, skin, hair, burning its way through her and leaving its mark as she begged for it all to stop. As if in answer to her prayers, he came out of the smoky darkness and took her out from the hell that had engulfed the market area.

"Suki," he whispered into her ear,

"It's okay now."

Toph, Yue

The dragon was relentless. It chased them out beyond the market area and continued to follow them. She let out a small yelp and quickly jerked back the younger girl as she realized what she had just found. A cliff. The path ended in a cliff, a dead end.

What were they going to do now? The dragon was upon them! Turning back to face the beast that had just landed with a resounding "thud" behind her, she bit her lip in determination. Whatever the outcome she had to fight!

The dragon let out a blast of its fiery breathe which was subsequently blocked by the brave little earthbender. She then threw two boulders at the ferocious beast, but it swatted them away with its tail as though they had been insects.

The dragon then flew up into the air, almost as if it knew the girl used earthbending to "see." It released volley after volley of flames, each getting more intense and each getting harder for Toph to block. Finally seeing her weakened condition, it swooped down extending its claws, ready to kill the little annoyance who had gotten in the way of its objective.

Yue grabbed Toph and was trying her best to outrun the looming talons, but she stumbled and it looked like it was over, but suddenly, water! Water rose out and slammed into the dragon sending it hurtling over to the left, into the mountainside.

Looking back to see where the water had come from, Yue saw the brown-haired girl she had seen earlier that day at the market area.

Katara

She was exhausted. She had never used that much water before, heck, she doubted if she would ever be able to again, but something in her told her she had to save that white-haired girl. It was almost like her own life depended on it, but why? She didn't even know the girl! Sure, she didn't want to see anyone die, but... the dragon was recovering, there was no more time to think! … But she was tired...

Aang, Sokka, Suki

He had just flown down on the back of the gigantic bison to see his friend carrying out the unconscious form of the Kyoshi warrior. He hailed Sokka as he jumped down,

"Where's Katara?" he received silence in reply, which told him that she was still missing inside the inferno.

"I'll find her! I promise!" he shouted as he hurried into the fiery mess.

Once inside he began using his airbending to clear away smoke. It was slow going, not because of the fire or smoke a simple blast of air was clearing most of that problem, no, it was the amount of injured or trapped that was slowing him down. But really, he couldn't just leave them. He hoped Katara would be okay, just a little longer.

Katara, Toph, Yue

Every twist of her wrists had become agony, and still the dragon wasn't giving up! She had always been told the red one was weaker, so why were they having more trouble with it? True, they didn't have Aang with them, or Suki, or even Sokka for that matter, but still! The earthbender had collapsed from fatigue a few minutes ago, and it didn't bode well for them.

The other girl could gather water for Katara to use, but she couldn't use it to strike, she didn't know how to, so it was left to Katara to do the actual fighting. The dragon whipped around knocking Katara back with its tail and slashing her across her stomach, almost disemboweling her. The other girl screamed as she fell to the ground as well, suffering a similar injury down the length of her arm, slicing through her muscles. It looked like it was over for them...

Zuko

When he arrived he witnessed the dragon reeling back as the two girls collapsed to the ground. The dragon let out one last furious fire ball as it slowly climbed into the sky in retreat and he almost didn't get there in time to block it. He was barely able to redirect the flames into the mountainside, and after he had, he wished he hadn't.

As soon as he released the fire it crashed into the mountainside and sent a volley of boulders and pieces of architecture hurtling toward them. He quickly grabbed the two, and although the chances were slim, he hoped that by some miracle they would land in water as he jumped off the cliff.

Aang

When he finally cleared the market area, he arrived at a cliff-side that was littered with rubble and debris. Amongst the debris, he noticed a little girl. He quickly bounded over to her, she was a little singed, but other than that she was fine. It was a miracle! He pulled up into his arms and hurried back to the temple. Katara had to have gone there, because she wasn't anywhere else.

Yue

Why had she flown off the handle like that? It wasn't like her to be so self-righteous. She didn't even know him! So, why? It just didn't seem right, anyone could see he enjoyed the company of others and it made her sad when he decided to leave the little girl with the Air Nomads, but she didn't say anything... until she actually saw the little girl standing there, holding onto that white animal so tight with tears streaming down her face.

Something about the scene just reminded her of herself, after all, she had abandoned her responsibilities, her family, her friends, her people. And for what? Because she couldn't handle being princess? It just made her sick to her stomach, she wasn't mad at him, she was mad at herself... because...

She woke up and immediately noticed the pain in her arm. So, she had survived, but how? The last she remembered the dragon was ripping its claw out of her arm... then nothing. She moved her head to look over, and there to her right was that brown-haired girl. She was still unconscious. She slowly slide her good arm up and used her elbow to prop herself forward, as she sat up she heard a quick sigh and from the corner of her eye caught a sudden movement.

Looking over she noticed Zuko approaching her.

Zuko, Yue

They had been out for two days. After he jumped they had been lucky to land in a mass of twisting trees and roots that was near the bottom of the mountain. He had sustained a dislocated knee and ankle, but had managed to pop them back into place... well, his knee was iffy... but at least he could walk... with a very noticeable limp.

He gasped a little out of surprise, a little out of relief as he saw Yue start to get up. Maybe if she felt well enough she could help the other girl... she had been in worse condition, and frankly he didn't know too much about treating wounds. He was just hoping they would manage to pull through.

Katara

She wasn't sure where she was, but she was sure she didn't want to be there. It looked similar to the inferno that had engulfed the market area at the temple, but it was clear, there was no smoke, only fire. She could swear she felt a presence and she began to shout to it,

"Who are you? Where am I? Answer me, I know you're out there!" she received no reply until finally a familiar voice spoke from behind her,

"You don't know? Well... that's a shame. I guess I'll have to try again later. You still don't realize, do you? Ask yourself, you'll know in time... don't rush it. I trust you."

With that she woke with a start that startled the heck out of the poor girl who was presiding over her trying to heal her wounds with waterbending.

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, sorry that took so long! I know I'd been updating like crazy, then NOTHING! Sorry, and I'm sorry this chapter relatively sucks, but writer's cramp mixed with finals week is horrible! So, I'm going to warn you guys that we're going to leave the others out in the cold for a while as we focus on Zuko, Yue, and Katara. Don't fret, I'll recap later!

Whew this is a long little monologue isn't it? I realize Yue was out of character ( thanks Gidon!), so I tried to sort of explain that. Um, Zuko was like... twelve? He's sixteen now, so four years ago he would have been twelve. ( I'm sorry I didn't answer that question sooner for you ArrayePL! And I will be getting to how it was he was also frozen in time... next chapter or the one after that, so within the next few chapters.) And a final thanks for reviews! Keep 'em coming 'cause I suck at getting Yue in character!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven: It's Just Another Wasted Day in Your Mind

* * *

Zuko

Every night was the same, had been the same since he had left the Northern Air Temple with the two girls. He would dream about how his mother came back to the Fire Nation after his father's suicide, dragged him out of the palace, him and his sister, through the darkness of the night and out to Crescent Island.

Upon entering the Fire Sage's Temple, she would instruct him to wait for her and she would leave. After a few minutes she would return with one of the Fire Sages and he would open a passage down through the volcanic underbelly of the temple.

Upon arriving at a secret chamber that resided under the inner sanctum of Avatar Roku, they would be instructed to enter, the door sealing firmly behind them. That's when it would happen, something inside the darkness would call out to them, it would take Azula and leave him there alone. He could never tell what it was, but it was so familiar... so familiar... after that his next memory was the Professor waking him up.

What had happened he didn't know for sure, but it really didn't matter now did it? He had survived for some godforsaken reason and was left alone in the world, to live out his life in fear that someone might discover his firebending. What a life!

"But there's more than that."

What? Who said that? Looking to the left and to the right of the campfire he ascertained that there was no one present, so who said it?

"I said it."

Who are you? Where are you?

"I am...hmm... that is hard to explain. Where I am is difficult to explain as well... but I would rather think you'd be worrying about where you are right now."

What? Why?

"Don't you realize what it is you have to do yet? ...No? Hmm... well, I believe it's time you woke up..."

"Zuko! Zuko! Wake up!"

Katara, Zuko

He roused to Katara, that brown-haired waterbender that had been with them for a few weeks, since the Northern Air Temple, the one that froze him to the ground so that Yue could take a look at his knee (As it turned out it wasn't exactly fixed, who would'a guessed?), she was shaking him so violently, had he been a baby he would've been dead from shaken baby syndrome.

"What?" he snapped pushing her away forcefully.

"You were yelling unintelligibly in your sleep, something about a temple and darkness, I think?"

"I was? Hmm... Must have been a nightmare, I don't remember." He lied as he rolled over to get more sleep and Katara crawled off back to the tent she and Yue shared.

Katara

She was determined to figure it out. There was something off about that boy, he never shared anything personal, not even stupid stuff like his favorite color! He also had that weird accent. Yeah, sure, it was diminishing with every passing day, but when she had first heard him it was really prominent.

Maybe Yue would know something, it wouldn't hurt to ask. The two had become fast friends, both sharing stories about their tribes and enjoying practice with each other. They had really bonded when the ship they had chartered to get to the Northern Water Tribe threatened to capsize in that squall.

They had worked together to keep the ship safe, redirecting waves and steadying currents, but when Zuko fell overboard they both dived after him. And that was how they got here, where ever here was. Zuko acted like he knew, but wouldn't talk about it... Yue might know something, after all she knew him before.

Yue

The moonlight reflected upon the still water with a faint yellow glow. She marveled at its splendor, only to see it turn blood red and harsh in an instant. The waves rose up out of the lake with a ferocity she had never seen in waterbending, and crashed over her.

Her lungs filled with water and she couldn't breathe. Slowly a figure came walking toward her, she strained her eyes to see who it was... Katara!

Katara was slowly rocking her in an effort to wake her,

"It's time to leave." she said lightly as she left and went about picking up the camp.

She crawled out of the tent and proceeded to help. They had no idea where they were, they had drifted to this island after diving into the water after Zuko. They had been sailing to the Northern Water Tribe and she had determined she would return to her family and accept the judgment her father had placed upon her. ...Where was Zuko? She had just realized he wasn't there.

"Katara, where is Zuko?"

"Hmm... I'm not sure. Where could he have gone?"

That being said, the two left in search for their missing member.

Zuko

He had to be sure, sure that this was the place. He thought it was, he at least knew by the sulfur smell that they had landed in his homeland, but he had to be sure. As soon as dawn arrived he left the camp and headed towards the west, going across the island toward the center. If this was the place, he should be able to see it pretty soon.

… There! It was the place... why did he have to come back here? Of all the places...

Katara, Yue

They had been wandering for hours, heading west along the coastline, the had decided it would be best not to get lost in the presumable vastness of the place and sticking to the coastline seemed like a good idea. So it was that they happened upon a huge villa.

It was dilapidated and very old, but the two decided to venture in anyway. The floor creaked most disturbingly beneath their feet causing them to question their endeavors momentarily, but soon their curiosity got the better of them and the girls pressed onward. In the center of the villa was a large open courtyard, it had a large stone... thing... in the center.

"They must not have cold winters here," Yue mused as she wandered behind Katara.

"Oh! It was a water fountain!" she exclaimed, sudden realization striking her.

"I wonder if it still works?" Yue questioned in response.

"Let's see!" She lightly replied and started twisting her hands and arms around in classic waterbending style, Yue joined her and soon water was pooling into the basin of the fountain only to seep out through a hidden crack in the base.

"I guess it's too old..." Katara said lamely then spun around rapidly giggling and dragging Yue behind her.

Katara had just noticed the stairway that was just beyond the courtyard on the side opposite them. They were going to explore the upper level now!

Zuko

He had heard noises outside and went to investigate, but when he got outside...nothing. There wasn't another soul around... why would there be? Ember Island had been deserted for a century! He just needed to take care of a few more things... then he would go back...

Why? Why was he even staying with those two? The Water Tribe girls would be better off without him, actually he was the only reason they were out here. Because he had fallen over board Yue and Katara had dived in after him. Katara had made an icy slab out of the water and they had drifted on it for a day or two, not knowing their direction or where land was, but when they had spotted the island, the two girls moved the currents and led them here.

A sudden shriek woke him from his daydreams of the past and he quickly ran inside. What greeted his eyes was the remnants of the staircase he had just descended a few moments before. He had lit some incense in honor of his long dead mother, the one person, aside from his uncle and cousin Lu Ten, who actually gave a crap about him. He missed her...

He wondered at the staircase's collapse, but then it was old. Heading out into the old courtyard, he walked further along and turned up a separate stairwell, this one in much better condition. He walked back into the room his mother's picture was in and was about to light incense for his cousin and uncle when he heard noises down the hall.

Sure, he had heard the tales of the malicious spirits that haunted the land... but they couldn't really be true...could they? He stopped in the doorway briefly deciding whether or not he should investigate, finally steeling his nerves he stepped forward down the hall and found the room empty.

He looked at the empty shelves and armoire, someone must have stolen all the old family relics in the initial raid on the island... the Firelord's personal family portraits would be good souvenirs for the Water Tribe or Earth Kingdom marauders...

He didn't have time for this. He walked out and headed in the direction of his father's old study... maybe... just maybe...

Katara, Yue

The staircase was exceptionally ominous, the wooden boards were broken and crumpled in several places and the railing looked as though it was ready to fall off completely.

"Hey, Katara maybe we shouldn't-"

"Aw, c'mon! Aren't you curious? We aren't harming anything, it's just for fun."

As much as she was motherly, self-righteous, and outspoken, Katara was curious. Yue was quiet, reserved, and a bit of a follower, so when Katara started to climb the creepy stairs, Yue followed. They both reached the top of the stairs before they collapsed behind Yue, who let out a bit of a shriek.

They were going to have to find another way down, unless they wanted to jump down into the twisted mess of broken wood... not exactly ideal. Yue was sort of relieved she had followed Katara, after all she was so creeped out she didn't really want to be alone. This place reminded her of the horror stories she would hear around the fire in the winter time.

Tales of the Spirit World and the cursed lands of the West. No one ventured west, except the Air Nomads traveling to the Western Air Temple, but they flew on bisons, never once setting foot on the land. Ever since the Fire Nation had been defeated over a hundred years ago, and their Firelord ordered them to commit mass suicide, the lands had been home to angry spirits who couldn't forgive the living or let go of their regrets.

Yue shuddered at the thought of the old Fire Nation lands and followed Katara into a room. The room had a huge window that faced the ocean, there was an alter on the right on it was the picture of a beautiful woman, she had long black hair, some of it pulled into a top-knot bun, and her clothes were strange, beside the portrait it had...lit... incense...

Yue was never more ready to leave than she was then, there was someone else here! Katara mirrored her eagerness and they both rushed out of the room. They headed down the hall and into another room, Katara grabbed the old lantern that hung on the wall and essayed to light it, finally lighting it she looked about the room. There was a large shelf against one wall and a half-open, broken armiore across from it on the other. When Katara walked forward to examine the armoire, Yue walked in to examine the shelf.

Sure they had been freaked out by the lit incense, but... well, it was just so mysterious. Besides, it was probably the owner of the house, they would eventually have to apologize for the broken stairway...

Examining the armoire, Katara found several scrolls, some with illegible writing on them, others with pictures, one was a baby on a beach, but in the low light that the lantern provided she couldn't tell much beyond that. She stuffed her new-found treasures into her sack and continued her investigation of the room.

Yue found a curious little stone with a hand shape carved into it, and it made her heart warm to see such a tiny little baby's hand print. The rest of the shelves held nothing of real interest, however she did notice a portrait and clasped it in her hand. There were four distinct figures she thought but couldn't tell for sure.

They heard creaking of footsteps down the hall, and though they didn't know why, they ran. They were on the beach a matter of minutes later, and seeing the sun was setting, they gathered some wood and built a fire. It was so much harder to start a fire than they had guessed, Zuko made it look easy.

By the time they had set up their tent and completed their campsite the sun had set. As they sat cuddling around the fire they began to chat absently to each other,

"...I wish Zuko were here."

"Oh, that's right. We didn't find him did we? Hmm... I wonder where he went... It would have been great if he were here, he could've started the fire for us like he usually does, and we wouldn't have had to, oh well."

"...Katara, do you think he's okay? I mean, nothing happened to him right?" Katara was many things, but it was not in her nature to not pry when she sensed that there might be something more between her friends, so pry she did.

"No, I mean, I think he's pretty strong, isn't he?"

"Oh yes, he's very strong... you're right, I'm sure he's fine." Yue was going to be a tough nut to crack...

"How did you guys meet?"

"Um... well... We met only a few days before we met you..."

"Really?"

"Yeah, he happened upon me as I was..." she trailed off but her flushed face told Katara enough,

"Go on."

"Uh, after that I healed him and-"

"Healed him?"

"Oh, yes, he was injured. He had a gash in his side and his wrists were severely burned along with several minor injuries as well."

"Did he have his scar?"

"Yes, it was already a scar when I met him... I should ask Toph if she knows when he got his scar..."

"Who's Toph?"

"Oh, she was a friend... is a friend we have in common. She's a little girl, about six years old with dark hair."

That was the first time Yue had allowed herself to think about Toph since she had asked about her when she woke up. Zuko had stared at her for a moment before asking if Toph had been with her, when Yue told him Toph had been there with her, she saw a wave of emotion pass through his eyes, from disbelief to fear to sorrow. He hadn't realized Toph was there!

He knew she had to be dead, and Yue promised herself not to talk about it any further, not knowing any other way to comfort the man who didn't show his feelings. Yue still believed there was a chance Toph had survived, after all she was an earthbender, right?

Katara saw the turmoil she had affected in her friend and decided to change the subject away from the possibly dead friend.

"Want to look at the treasures we gathered?"

Yue nodded, glad for the change in subject and the distraction from her troublesome thoughts. They pulled out the scroll with the portrait of the baby on it, it was so cute! It looked really familiar...

Then they pulled out the family portrait that Yue had recovered and it struck them. The resemblance that baby had to the boy in the portrait. The boy looked exactly like the father shown who looked exactly like...

"Zuko."

Yue whispered so quietly that Katara almost didn't catch it, and she was right next to her.

Zuko

In the end they, whoever they were, had already ransacked the former Firelord's study and taken the scrolls that might have contained information about the Fire Sage's Temple. Loathe as he was to admit it, the dreams were starting to bother him. He was about to set up a fire in the courtyard when a faint glimmer caught his eye.

He headed out to find its source and stumbling unceremoniously out on the beach he found Yue and Katara sitting by a fire. They were looking at something, so intently that they hadn't even noticed him almost face-plant into the sand.

"Hey!" he called out and as they raised their heads to see him, he could swear he saw tears in Yue's eyes and a worried expression in Katara's.

* * *

Author's Note: So yeah, more filler, but next chapter should be interesting!*Hint, Hint* Anyone guessed where I get the titles from yet? Bonus ***wink*** for anybody that guesses. Okay for clarity, Zuko, Yue, and Katara have basically been hanging for a month. They recovered, then chartered a ship for the Northern Water Tribe, Zuko fell overboard, the girls jumped after him, Katara made an ice raft, and they drifted to Ember Island. I hope everybody got that, but I figured I better clarify. Hmmm... What have Aang, Toph, and Sokka been up to? ...I wonder...

P.S. ArrayPL: I kinda wanted to make it hard to tell who was doing what, but I will clarify in the next chapter's Author's Note section if need be. Thanks For The Quick Review! Much appreciated! 


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight: Nobody Knows Who You Even Are, Who You Think That You Are

* * *

Zuko

He was shocked by their expressions, as if they were frightened and sad at the same time. What were they looking at? He had to know so he moved closer to them, and as he did Katara stood into a bending stance.

"K-Katara?" he stuttered as she readied herself for a fight.

What was going on? ...Had they somehow figured it out? ...He knew this would happen. Now they hated him...

Katara was ready to fight him and Yue was simply in shock behind her... he'd always known Yue was a weaker person, following orders as much as she did, he really wondered why she was alone when they first met... but now they were enemies.

Why was fate determined to make him suffer? He didn't want to lose their company... he felt at home with Yue's quiet compassion and Katara's over-mothering... Well, if she intended to fight him, then a fight she would get! Although with the sun completely below the horizon, he wasn't sure how much of a fight he could give...

Katara

It made perfect sense! He was a spirit! He had led them back here, for what reason, she didn't know, but really what other explanation was there? Yue was clearly upset, Katara hadn't really guessed the depths of the girl's emotion until now... but there was just no way he could still be alive!

The portrait was old, found in a old abandoned house … it was straight out of a horror story. Assuming he was the little boy, he must have died about six to eight years after the portrait was painted... but why was he leading these two here... and wait... didn't Yue heal him, more than once even? ...Tricks! It had to be him tricking them...

Was Toph an illusion too? Katara had never actually met the supposed earthbender, but could she be another spirit? Katara thought all of this in rapid succession, until she wiped it all from her head, she was not about to become a pawn to be eaten or killed by spirits. No, she was going to fight!

Yue

All she could do was watch in horror as the man she thought she loved blocked an attack thrown at him by her best friend. She knew Katara was right, but why did it feel wrong? The brief glimmer in his eyes had faded replaced for a second by dejection as Katara had slid into her bending stance, even now the familiar light in his eyes was replaced by a cold, blank stare that showed nothing of his emotions... maybe he was a spirit...

Katara, Zuko

Her first attack he blocked with his wrists, he hadn't had the time to avoid the water whip, but now he reached for his swords, securely fixed to his back. He pulled them from their sheath and slashed at Katara in one fluid motion, it reminded her of waterbending almost. She sidestepped and sent another whip of cold seawater in his direction.

He flipped over it and rushed her, knocking her down with a kick. She hadn't seen that coming, too focused on blocking his swords with an icy shield. She quickly rolled backward and sprang at him, using her feet this time to catch him off guard.

She swept low to the ground with her hands and rose them swiftly, a wave shooting up behind her. It passed over her and as soon as it had he could see it start to freeze. Her crossed his swords in front of him and sliced a partition of the ice wall away, but judging from her smirk, that was exactly what she had wanted him to do.

The remnants of the wall on either side of him crashed into him and then refroze with a few flicks of her wrist. He couldn't move, he was frozen in ice up to his neck.

"It's over. You're through." She said, if he had been paying attention to her tone he would have noticed the hint of sadness it portrayed, but he wasn't and he shocked both the girls by what he did next.

"No, no it's not. I plan on lasting on this earth a little longer." and with that the air around them grew hotter, as though they were in the midst of the summer heat even though it was late fall, but that wasn't as shocking as what happened after that... Fire!

He opened his mouth and fire shot out, just like the dragons! Katara stumbled backward and fell beside Yue, both shocked beyond words. As he freed himself, melting the ice enclosed around him, Katara stood once again to face him, only this time she was slightly more prepared.

She was sweating profusely. With every attack he threw at her and every subsequent counter she threw at him, the temperature seemed to rise. If she didn't know better, she'd have sworn they were back in the inferno at the Northern Air Temple, and all of this had been a dream... no this was real! She was fighting for her life and for her best friend's life too!

She dodged another fireball and sent an ice spear in reply, she had taken off the kid gloves, no longer thinking of him as her friend. She was positive he meant to kill them both and the sun was rising, which meant her power source, the moon, was fading. She had to end this!

In one final effort she sent a wave at him, of course he blocked it, turning it instantly to steam, but she had already thought of that. She had jumped to his left side and summoning water around her, forming it into ice, she punched him with it as hard as she could, right in the side of his face, her brother would be so proud.

He was thrown back into the side of a tree trunk and landed in a slump on the ground as Katara slid limply to the ground as well. Now that the moon had disappeared beyond the horizon, she was completely out of energy. Yue ran over to her and caught her before she fell back, she was out cold, but luckily, so was he.

Katara, Yue

Katara woke before he did, rising with the moon, both of them must have used all their energy because they slept through the whole day. Yue had healed both their wounds, she just couldn't let him go untreated, when she saw Katara rousing she spoke,

"Katara, I don't think he is a spirit... Wouldn't he have just faded away if he was, I mean after you beat him?"

She wasn't sure. She'd never actually seen or fought a spirit before...

"I don't know, but we should at least restrain him... he's dangerous."

"With what?"

Again she wasn't sure. They didn't have anything like restraints, but could they just leave him free to attack again? Hmm... it was a conundrum.

"Well, for now I'll just use some really thick ice."

Katara soon had him restrained against a tree, ice encased around his ankles and wrists. ...Wait.

"Yue, if he's not a spirit, what is he? He controls fire..." as soon as she said it she revealed the possible answer to herself.

Quickly snatching the portrait out of the sand, she examined it further. There! On the father's head, a small flame design was portrayed on his top-knot hairpiece and the banner that hung behind them. ...They were Fire Nation...

"What do you know of the Fire Nation?" she asked, finally breaking the silence that had settled over their camp.

"Not really anything, just some old stories my Gran-Gran heard from her father. She always said they were evil, and it was because of the last Firelord, Firelord Ozai, that the dragons attacked. He made a secret vow with them or something..."

"Really? In the Northern Tribe we are told that too, but actually, we have several written records about it, but only the higher-ups get to see them. I don't remember too many of the records..."

"Oh... That's too bad... I was kinda hoping to learn more..."

Zuko

What did they care? The Fire Nation was dead and gone thanks to their people. Were they blaming the dragons on the Fire Nation? Was it not enough that those people destroyed the Fire Nation that they had to blame the dragons' rampage on them too?

He was glad for the first time since he left the confines of that cursed base under the waters of that stupid lake that the dragons had decided to level everything. Those people hadn't changed... attacking him just because he was Fire Nation, irregardless of everything he had done. They deserved the destruction of their homelands and people too!

Hadn't they done that to the Fire Nation? Weren't the dragons just meting out the punishment that was due them? Even after all they'd done, he still couldn't bring himself to attack them, the first time had been out of self-defense.

He decided he would leave without involving them any further, so he waited until they slept then he gathered all the trinkets they had gained from the house and tossed them into the dying flames, making the flames rise to eat the forgotten treasures.

He had no use for them, those items would only serve to identify him later, and so he also tossed the blue mask into the ocean, with that he told himself to forget all the pathetic people he had met since he'd awoken and began his journey toward the old Fire Sage Temple there he could get some answers.

* * *

Author's note: So, it's probably not as exciting as you thought...:( But I hope it was at least well written. Yes, next chapter will actually get back to the dragon storyline and the weirdness there, but I just felt like if the dragons showed up every chapter it would be like, uh, BORING! Oh, and I fully realize just how short this chapter was, well, sorry.) So yeah, I put in a Katara-Zuko fight scene, cause that's never been done before... Oh well. *I hope you guys understand sarcasm.*

Everything should be more back to normal next chapter. How am I doing keeping everybody in character? I feel like Yue is so hard to peg, so I've sort of been making her the dutiful type, which she kinda is, she was going to marry somebody she didn't even like because her dad told her too in the T.V. Show... Anyhoo... Reviews are appreciated!

* * *

Sorry about that guys! i am a bit of a moron... hahaha, I really should watch what I'm uploading sometimes... This is the true chapter 8.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine: 'Cause That's My Planz, Planz, Planz

* * *

Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph

Upon arriving in the North Pole, home of the Northern Water Tribe, the Avatar and his friends had been made nothing short of welcome, they had even invented a rolling chair for his small earthbending friend, one that she did not appreciate half as much as they had thought she would, but then they were mourning, all of them.

They had lost some friends at the Northern Air Temple when the dragon had attacked, not to mention the destruction of the entire Southern Water Tribe, these facts seemed to weigh down the group for a week, it probably would have been longer except that Master Pakku had stepped in and confirmed that the past was not going to change and that the time for mourning was past, he demanded they speak on the matters which had lead them here.

That was when the young Avatar stated his mission to contact the previous Avatar, Avatar Roku, at the sacred pond, the place where Tui and La existed in perpetual harmony... The chieftan forbade it however, due to a precept that one must be a waterbending master to enter the realm of the pond. Thus it came to be that Master Pakku gained a new apprentice...

"Geez, can't Twinkle Toes learn any faster? I hate it here!" Toph complained out loud for the whole North Pole to hear, which was something the whole North Pole was used to hearing by now.

She really truly couldn't stand how cold it was or the fact that she couldn't "see" anything on ice, but it was the absolute boredom from having nothing to do that made her really hate the place. She wanted to go find Yue and Zuko, her friends.

They had both disappeared after the dragon attack at the Northern Air Temple, along with that other waterbender, whom she had found out was named Katara. She hated being here and not being able to do anything...

"Momo, c'mon, let's go do something." She said as she steadily walked out of the room, the eager lemur chortling along behind her.

Aang

"Avatar Aang, I believe you have mastered all that you can." Master Pakku said as he stepped out of his bending stance.

"But I can barely even control water and my octopus stance is nonexistent!" Aang replied back, exiting his waterbending stance as well.

"Yes, well, I have taught you the proper form, it will be up to you to learn to use it. You are too distracted by your mission for now, here. Take these scrolls, they will help you with your waterbending. I expect these scrolls to be returned after you reach a level of true mastery, understood?"

Aang was quite dumbfounded at his master, Pakku had never seemed to care over anything in the two weeks he'd been training with him and now he was basically just passing him so that he could get on with his mission? It didn't make sense, but he wasn't about to question it, so off he went following Master Pakku through the frozen capital and winding passages until they reached the center of the palace where Tui and La's pond resided.

Before entering completely, Pakku stopped and turning toward Aang said,

"There is a secret about this pond. You must swear never to reveal this secret to anyone, understood?"

"Um, okay. I understand." Aang replied, rather confused at the sudden interruption to their journey, and Pakku said no more as to what the actual secret was...

Upon entering, a cool summer breeze greeted them, a thing which was unheard of in either of the frozen poles... except here apparently. The sacred pond that housed Tui and La, as he had been told by almost everyone in the Northern Water Tribe that it did, was a mystical place where the weather had no effect, it was always the right temperature there.

Aang walked, somewhat cautiously, over to the pond that laid directly in the center of the area, and sat before it. He gazed in wonderment for a moment or two, taking in the surroundings, before he finally looked over to Pakku and asked,

"So... Where are Tui and La?"

"They are not here."

"... but this is their pond. Everyone in town said they'd be here and that they could help me."

"That is the secret which you must not speak of. It is a well-kept secret that Tui and La abandoned this place long ago, back when the dragons first started to rampage I was told. Only the most experienced waterbenders ever behold this place, and the penalty for revealing this secret is death, so thus we have kept up the ruse through-out the century. Avatar Aang, I believe you may still find guidance by meditating in this place, but you will not receive any help from Tui and La."

"Master Pakku, does anyone know where they went?"

"It was said they went to find the balance, but I do not have any idea what that means, neither did my predesessors."

"Oh..."

Sokka, Suki, Toph

"Agni! Is Twinkle Toes done yet? I'm bored!" Toph complained before laying back lacksidaisically onto the ice behind her.

"Well, I heard that Master Pakku passed him and so he went to go talk to Tui and La..." Suki offered wondering what on earth an "agni" was and where Toph had heard it while Toph jumped back up.

"Does that mean we can find Sparky and um,..." Toph stopped her sentence midway as she moved her head from side to side, looking as though she was looking around, but being blind she was actually just listening for signs of others around them.

"...Yue?" Sokka asked, much puzzled as to the reason behind Toph's antics.

"Hey! I was trying to keep that low profile!"

"Why?" Suki wondered, puzzled right alongside Sokka for the first time in a while.

There were still things neither of them knew about the strange little earthbender, like why she talked in the cocky, slightly masculine, little way in which she did or some of the strange things she said in a funny accent, like she was repeating something someone else had said in a strange accent, but they guessed it might have had something to do with this "Sparky" person, whoever he was.

Sokka guessed it might be the guy with the burnt face, but he wasn't entirely sure. What they had figured out was that, well obviously, the guy's real name wasn't Sparky, and for some reason, which she also wouldn't explain, she wouldn't give away the guy's real name. Both of these facts confused them, but she must have had her reasons they assumed, so they had left it at that.

"Well, when I first asked about her around here, they all started acting weird around me, even Pakku, but since this whole place is an ice cube, I couldn't tell if they were lying or not when they all said they hadn't ever heard of a Water Tribe member with that name."

"Are you sure she wasn't from the Southern Tribe?"

"Yeah! And besides Snoozles hasn't ever heard of her!"

"Well, I saw her for the first time in the Air Temple, but that doesn't mean she didn't just move away when she was little, that happens sometimes."

"...whatever. Is Twinkle Toes done yet?"

Aang

Meditation was always semi-tricky for the inquisitive airbender, after all air was the free element, always in motion and never still. That was exactly why the older monks always tried to drill in the importance of meditation to the younger monks, saying such things as meditation being the key to understanding the teachings and also important for gaining the necessary detachment to the world in order for flight and other such necessary airbending skills.

Aang tried the old tricks the older Air Nomads had taught him to help with his meditation; thinking of air or the breeze, thinking of how chi circulates through the body, and even trying to count his breathes… none of these things worked. It was only as he thought of helping his friends, finding Katara, and solving the mystery of what Avatar Roku was talking about that he finally relaxed into a calm meditative state.

Master Pakku, the warm summery breeze, and also the smell of the clear spring, they all faded away replaced by nothing… well, more like a calming white light, oh and Avatar Roku as well.

"Avatar Aang, I am glad you could make it."

"Avatar Roku! I'm so glad I got through! What can you tell me about the dragons and the 'gods in mortal form'?"

"Avatar Aang, the trial you face is great. Both the Spirit world and the mortal realm are on the brink of destruction, and should you fail, will be destroyed. The great imbalance created by the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes cannot be remedied by the dragons, though that is what they originally strove for. They focus now on ending both worlds as they now know they cannot recover what was lost. You must, young Avatar, you must succeed where they failed."

"It's my destiny to destroy the Earth Kingdom and the Northern Water Tribe!"

"No! The balance that was established by the ancient spirits long ago is far too fragile a thing to be trifled with, that is why the Earth kingdom and the Water Tribes were fools… You must restore the balance they lost, but you are not alone… Young Avatar, the turmoil here grows, I must go."

"Wait! Who are the 'gods in mortal form' and where do I find them?"

"They are… Tui and La… Reunite with them and they will show you to… I can stay no longer… Earth Kingdom… there is answers…"

And Avatar Roku left once again. Aang was confused again, but at least he thought he knew a little more about what was going on… But, how on earth was he supposed to restore balance when the last of the Fire Nation was dead? And therefore, how was he supposed to stop the dragons? And where was he supposed to find Tui and La!

So maybe this had been a wild goose-lizard chase, he was still at square one… Well, he did have that last bit about answers in the Earth Kingdom… He decided he'd just go tell Sokka and the girls all he'd heard for now, maybe with a few fresh minds mulling over what he'd heard from Avatar Roku, they'd actually get somewhere. As he opened his eyes and stood to leave, he noted that Master Pakku was gone. Maybe he'd had other things to do…?

Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph

After finally finding Sokka, Suki, and Toph, Aang was able to explain to them everything that had happened and all that Roku said, he even told them about the farce which was Tui and La's sacred pond, only he never actually called it a farce, Toph embellished.

As they sat and contemplated this information after dinner, as it was just about dinner time when Aang had stopped his meditation, suddenly Master Pakku burst into the room, startling everyone except for Toph, who it was believed could never actually be startled.

"Avatar Aang and company, you must leave. Now." Pakku seemed slightly out of breath as he hastily spoke the words, leaving the room in a confused silence directly afterward.

"Avatar, there are forces at work which will take too long to explain, but believe me I am a friend. Now, you must go."

* * *

Author's "I'm epic sorry I failed to update and now you guys think this is another one of those stories on FanFiction that's never going to be updated again" Note: I'm so sorry! And yeah, I know this chapter sucks too… but I had to put it in here and no matter what I did it came out boring and information heavy without actually containing any real information… yeah, again sorry.

But… next chapter we again see what Zuko, Yue, and Katara are up too as well as keep up with Aang and the rest of the GAang, so it will be way more interesting. I just sort of hate the Northern Water Tribe…'cause I wanted Katara to still teach Aang, but… yeah, this is the "oh, crap… I really messed that up, uh, oops?" chapter where I'm fixing my storyline (realigning it and all….)

So, yeah, it sucks… Don't eat me alive guys, I promise another update soonish, maybe even tomorrow or later today… depends on how soon I can focus my thoughts… yeah… again, I'm so very sorry.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten: Somethings Gotta Change, Things Cannot Stay The Same

* * *

Katara, Yue

It had taken them a week to fully explore the small island they were on, another to figure out that no one was coming to get them, and then a few days to utilize their knowledge of boats and boat building to construct a sturdy little raft out of the native trees. They could see the mainland through the fog once Katara had waved it away, and the two were determined to get off this island, still not entirely convinced there weren't lost souls which dwelled on it.

As they sailed across the sea, it dawned on them or Katara at least, if Zuko had been indeed real, as they had thought before waking to find he'd disappeared again, then where had he gone? Had he come this way too? Yue broached another subject as she asked,

"Katara, we're in the old Fire Nation lands of the West, right? Well, um… do you think their spirits will be angry at us, two Water Tribe girls, stepping onto their land, I mean we were on an outlying island before and not the mainland, so…"

"I.. don't know… but I have already paid in blood for my people's transgressions." Katara was stoicly, sorrowfully solemn as she said this, something that Yue wasn't sure she ever wanted to see again.

Katara had always been hopeful and sometimes slightly moody, but never so solemn and sorrowful. Yue decided that it might be best if she didn't approach the subject again, although she still wasn't at ease for some reason about landing on the mainland…

Sokka

Master Pakku had been incredibly mysterious in his desire to get them to leave, sneaking them out in the middle of the night and such, but the thing he couldn't figure out was why he had done it. The last thing Pakku said as Aang jumped on Appa's head and he himself climbed up the saddle to join Suki and Toph burned in his mind,

"We failed once, due to our prejudices, but now we will not…"

Pakku had said it mostly to himself, but Sokka had heard it and so it left him with such burning questions, as did Avatar Roku's words to Aang, well, it was more his choice of words that drove him mad with curiosity. Aang had said he'd repeated Roku's words _**exactly,**_ so why had Roku said,

"They are… Tui and La… Reunite with them and they will show you to…"

That part was confusing slightly, because Roku was fading out even then, but what drove him really up the wall was the wording,

"_**Reunite with them**_",

so Aang had already met them? It was so confusing, because then the Avatar had been reincarnated like, a billion times, so had Aang met them or had a previous incarnation?

Zuko

He'd strung together a hastily crafted raft which barely managed to make it to the mainland, but spent a week once there crafting a solid one for the journey to the Fire Sage temple on Crescent Island. It took a bit of trial and error, but he'd managed to finally build one, however, once he got to Crescent Island, the lack of firebender in the place for a hundred years became evident.

There was a reason firebenders lived in the Fire Nation, because by harnessing the power of fire they were able to somewhat control a volcano's fury, but since the Fire Sages had all been killed, it seemed so had their temple.

It would seem as though once he was removed from the temple, the entire place had been leveled in a volcanic outburst… or maybe it was simply the work of those Earth Kingdom terrors, manipulating the earth into destroying the only place where he could get answers. Defeated, he sat down and tried to think of what he was to do next…

He couldn't go back to the Earth Kingdom, the ones in authority there had a price on his head, he couldn't go to either of the Water Tribes, the strangeness of the sun and moon cycles would be the death of him there but really he would stand out far too much anyway, and the Air Temples? No, he couldn't live with a bunch of monks teaching kindness and forgiveness, not when they had done nothing to stop the destruction of his nation so long ago, no, he held them as much in fault as the other nations, which was why he was doomed to live alone, in the remains of the Fire Nation…

But he still wanted answers, why was he saved? What had happened to Azula? How had he actually been frozen in time for one hundred years? These questions wouldn't go away without some sort of answer to them, so he continued to ponder how to obtain the sought after answers when he realized, there was one place that he could get some answers…

It had been terribly long since anyone had been there though, and he wondered what exactly would be there waiting for him. Still, he headed out…

Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph

She finally managed to get Sokka's attention by hitting him upside the head with her fan, they were supposed to be setting up camp and Sokka wasn't helping, dazing off in his own world. The whole group had seemed to be in horrid spirits since the Northern Temple, but the hope they had fostered during their stay in the Northern Water Tribe had dissappated it seemed after the revelation that Avatar Roku really hadn't given them any information, other than to restore some sort of balance and that answers laid within the Earth Kingdom.

Well, Earth Kingdom happened to be the largest kingdom of the four, so the answers weren't being found, their friends were still unaccounted for, and the Spirit World wasn't helping out anymore either… Thus a fog of depression and angst fell over the camp... She had had enough!

"All right! We're in the Earth Kingdom now, so we're gonna get our answers soon, like Avatar Roku said, so let's just not fight our enemies until we can see them!" She burst suddenly, startling the other three to the point where Sokka made a slight squeak when she first shouted.

She wasn't one for the touchy-feely, "let's talk your problems out" sort of comfort, but she wasn't going to let these guys, her friends and allies, beat themselves up trying to figure out some crazy, mystic, Spirit World hocus-pocus and riddles. She believed in two things, things she could fight and things she couldn't, so she would fight what she could and not bother with what she couldn't.

"I don't know if the others are alive or dead, I don't know if there is a way to restore whatever the balance is that Avatar Roku talked about, and I certainly don't know how to find Tui and La, but I do know that there's no point in worrying about what I can't change, so we'll just jump off those bridges when we come to them, alright?"

Toph, for once, seemed quite satisfied with this little speech that she made and added,

"Yeah! So let's just follow the path before us, it's easier than trying to decide if another path is better."

And that was how Suki broke through the thick cloud of doubt, worry, and confusion that hung over the GAang, Suki style.

Yue

It was the middle of the day by the time they had managed to actually reach the mainland, and her fears of landing on the mainland hadn't quite gone away. Actually, she felt more trepidation the closer they came to the shoreline. Katara hopped out onto the ground first, easing her fears slightly, but as she stepped closer to the edge of the raft, she felt fainter and fainter.

She didn't notice the sweat pouring down her forehead and arms as she took the step off the raft. As her foot touched the scorching sand, the world around her went black. She didn't even hear Katara shout her name…

Toph

They had been flying around, not entirely knowing where they were going anyway, they just assumed they'd know it when they saw it, and if that were true then they supposed they were meant to be in this swamp… this creepy swamp.

Aang had directed Appa to land without even realizing it, and when Suki and Sokka had tried to tell him to pull up, or not land in the creeptastic swamp, he replied that he hadn't even realized he was. One tornado and a dive into the swamp later, and here they were….

Well, sorta. It seemed they'd all been split up, and as astonishing as it was, even though her feet were planted securely on the ground, she couldn't "see" any of them. Aang and Appa? They could have been flying, but the others? She was very confused, but she at least still had Momo firmly planted on her shoulder, so she proceeded along through the swamp.

Zuko

It would have felt nostalgic, being back here, except for the hundred year old skeletons that still littered the streets. He'd heard stories during his captivity in the Earth Kingdom about the mass suicide that his father had lead in the capital and how no one from the other nations dared to even approach the city, but seeing it for himself, he just felt… hopeless?

How could so many have just ended their lives like this? What was it all for? But then he was reminded of the fact that all the other people of his nation had been killed by either Earth Kingdom or Water Tribe forces anyway, so perhaps they had just rather died in service to their lord than by the enemy's whim. Still, it really didn't matter now, did it? They all died irregardless…

He didn't have time to contemplate which death was better, he had a certain secret entrance to find… There! The entrance to the dragon bone catacombs, the only place left that he could think of that would hold any information on the Fire Nation or the Fire Sage Temple and what could have possibly happened to him inside said place.

Sokka

Well, this was just great! As though walking through a scummy swamp wasn't enough, he was seeing things on top of that! There in front of him was this ginormous owl, looking at him through evil glaring eyes. He looked at it in awe for a moment, before deciding it must be an illusion, and turned and walked away. He could feel a warm breeze blowing along the back of his neck, along with…sand?

He was about to turn back around when suddenly something pushed him face first into the swamp water. Pushing himself back up with a vengeance, he wheeled around to see that it was Suki who had toppled into him…

Katara

Catching Yue as she fell forward, passed out, from the raft, she wondered if maybe she was wrong about the islands of the West, maybe they were cursed… No, she was sure Yue was just tired from the waterbending which had gotten them here in less than a half a day and the heat pouring down from the sun wasn't helping either.

Half dragging the other girl, she retreated to a shaded area, safe from the sun for a while. It was then she realized the pained expression on Yue's face and also that she was drenched in sweat. Placing her hand on Yue's forehead with a slight degree of trepidation, she was severely worried for her friend now, and as soon as her hand touched the flesh of Yue's forehead, some of her fears were confirmed, Yue had a bad fever.

She needed help, but they were in the lands of the West and Katara, although she'd tried to learn from Yue, had failed miserably in every attempt to heal with her bending… Maybe a passing Air Nomad would see them, if they were high enough to be spotted from a flying bison…

Quickly stitching together a few brambles, she made a makeshift cot for Yue to rest on as she dragged it along behind her, trying to find any sort of structure or high place to try and signal an Air Nomad and get help…

Aang

Well, things had certainly gotten quite exciting, besides the unintentional visit to the swamp and the disappearance of Appa and his friends, leaving him alone, he had seen something in blue moving through the swamp, what it was, he couldn't tell for sure, as he was unable to get a good glimpse of it. Following along through the thick underbrush and murky waters, he finally came to a small clearing in the area; a fallen tree had apparently cleared the area when it collapsed.

It was the first direct light he'd been able to see in the smoggy forest. A dark, malevolent sounding voice spoke from behind him saying,

"I can see it now... Yes, of course, I would be summoned forth by _**your**_ mind, but you don't really know what it is that I am, do you?"

"Is someone there? Have you seen my friends? We crashed here together, but were split up... Two of them are Earth Kingdom and one is Water Tribe, along with a flying bison and a lemur." he replied to the disembodied voice, and reflected that there was something so very familiar about the feminine voice itself, but he couldn't quite place it.

A sound similar to moving water echoed through the swamp as the voice switched location to beside him instead of behind and once more spoke,

"I am the changing tides, the darkness of the sea…" Again the voice moved, to his other side as it continued,

"And you would still try to catch me? We will see…"

"I don't want to catch you! I don't even know who you are! Have you seen my friends or not?" he replied back, quite confused and somewhat frantic, he really just wanted to find his friends.

"Really, Aang, I thought you'd have figured it out."

This time he knew the voice, it was Katara!

* * *

Author's Note: Yeah, a lot going on, and yes, I did change what Sokka saw in the swamp, 'cause he has no reason to see Yue this time, because he doesn't really know her, some of you guys might realize what the dream was referring to, but maybe not… J ( I thought I made it obvious, maybe not though….) …as yeah, it is the adventures in the swamp which they are going through.

BTW: Toph can't "see" the others 'cause that swamp is… like, really freaking weird.

So yeah, here's the part where we start getting answers, only a few, if you're sharp. If you're really sharp (a.k.a. reading my mind) you already saw this coming.

Um, oh yeah, I'm pretty sure I didn't get the name of the place where they keep all the important records right, I called it the Dragon Bone catacombs, but I think I'm wrong… so, whatever… Let's just pretend Zuko remembered the name wrong…

And yes, I have for a special reason made Katara unable to heal, there is a VERY good reason for this, so don't kill me! You will see eventually…

So I wasn't too impressed with this chapter either... and I figured out why... no freakin' action. So we'll get back to that... soonish. I'm not sure if I can actually put a whole lot into the next chapter, but I'll try!

Um, so yeah, next chapter: Yue: sick, why? Toph's swamp dream? Suki's swamp dream? Aang sees Katara again? And Zuko's adventures in the record books?


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven: I'll Face Myself, To Cross Out What I've Become

* * *

Toph

Wandering along through the thick brush and foliage, she had started to stumble along and trip, something that shouldn't happen to her, not when she had earth beneath her feet. Still, it did happen, and she was about ready to give up and just sit and wait for Aang, Sokka, or even Suki, because this swamp business was just hopeless.

She wanted to just hit something, it had been way too long since she had and that really stunk. She was mulling over this when she heard a twig behind her snap, followed by another and another, she heard the voice of that guy who had attacked her and Zuko before they'd met Yue, and she ran.

She still couldn't "see" but she did send a few earthy spikes their way as she continued away from her pursuers. She could hear his mocking tone as he told her Yue and Zuko were both dead and that she would also never "see" her other friends again.

She screamed she would too back at him and sent a wall of earth behind her. As she was running, a bramble or root caught her foot and she collapsed into the ground with a thud. As she stuck her hand out to pick herself back up, she felt something familiar within her grasp… it was that mask from before, Zuko's mask. She grasped it and held it close to her, going over its surface with her small hand just to be sure it was the same one.

As she did this, a hand settled down onto hers, and with a quick motion of her foot, she sent whoever it was sailing backwards, only to hear Suki's voice admonishing,

"Toph! That was Sokka!"

Yue

Again she sifted through the dark, searching for what though? She didn't know, but she could hear faint whispers, who it was or what they were trying to tell her, she also couldn't tell.

"Why am I here?" She finally screamed out to the darkness, and suddenly above her, the moon shone out from behind its cloud cover.

A sudden feeling of relief struck her as she basked in its pale light… then she looked back to her surroundings and saw… a city with bodies littering the streets, women, men, children, everywhere… all dead. She wanted to puke, her utter disgust and sorrow overpowering her, but as she clapped her hand to her mouth, she felt… wet.

Looking down at her hands, she saw red… blood. She was covered in it! She looked up into a mirror set before her and saw that she was bathed in blood, their blood? She noticed something behind her and turned around to see… Zuko? He was there along with the two dragons, each at his side, and they weren't attacking him.

A grim smile replaced his blank expression as he held his hand up toward the moon. She spun around mechanically, to see a red film slowly cover the moon and she looked down to see a growing film of blood start to cover herself starting at her stomach and radiating outward along with the point of a sword.

She felt herself fading and she fell backward, landing on the cold hard earth. Looking back to where Zuko had been, she saw the dragons had disappeared and only Zuko remained. He walked over and slowly, painfully he spoke,

"I never wanted it to come to this, my love."

She felt a tear slide down her cheek and then… She jolted awake with a start, only to dizzily fall back onto the makeshift cot. Katara gasped, and asked her a flurry of questions like, "how do you feel?", "are you comfortable?", "did you have a nightmare?", and "are you hungry or thirsty?".

She weakly replied,

"I'm fine, Katara. I just, I don't know… I'm not hungry, but I am slightly thirsty, thank you."

And Katara gave her a drink of water to drink, noting that Yue still looked pallid and weak.

Aang

"Katara!" he shouted out excitedly.

He couldn't believe it! She was here, in this swamp, that must have been why he had been drawn here! Then the voice moved again, to directly in front of him,

"You really don't know anything."

And stepping out of the misty forest that surrounded him, was Katara, but something about her was different. She had a long flowing blue dress, well, it was mostly blue, it sort of changed colors, like a flowing tide, from light to dark blue. Her hair flowed behind her as well, she didn't have her hair loopies, and her eyes seemed cold, or distant. She approached him and finally getting close enough, she pulled him into a hug, something that was very Katara, then she whispered into his ear,

"But you could no more catch me than you could hold the ocean, little Avatar."

And she vanished, leaving Aang alone to try and understand what had just happened.

Zuko

Finally finding the bottom of the unending staircase that he had descended down, he reached the records room. Upon entering, he noted the disarray that had overtaken the room, something wasn't right… Then behind him he heard a very familiar sound, the sound of someone shifting around a piece of straw in their mouth, almost imperceptible, but there none-the-less.

"Thought you'd head here if the freakin' temple was destroyed, ya son of a wolf-bat."

Jet. Whirling around, careful not to use his bending lest he catch fire to the old records, he swung out his dual swords, only to have Jet match them in his own hook swords. The cocky smile that Jet had splayed over his face was almost enough to make him want to burn the smug countenance off him right then and there… almost.

As it was he had spent too much effort just getting here to risk burning the last hope he had of answers. Bringing his heel up in a swift kick, he succeeded in making Jet step back and disengage his swords but failed to actually hit him. This was all he needed, however, as he swung his swords again, bringing one down only a half a second faster than the other. Jet barely managed to block this attack, but did.

Using the hooks on the ends of his swords he jerked downward, pulling Zuko's arms along with him. Now it was his turn to kick, and he did, landing his heel on Zuko's chin. Zuko could have dodged, but instead chose to be hit, using the time to, instead of blocking or dodging, grab Jet's foot, letting his swords clash loudly onto the floor.

Jet jerked for a moment, before he realized what it was Zuko was doing, then he swiped his swords together at the firebender, trying to save his foot from being burned beyond recognition.

"Monster." Jet spat as he regained his foot from Zuko, not without the bottom being completely blistered from Zuko burning it with some very controlled firebending.

Now Zuko was without his swords and without a hold on his enemy, a lesser man may have surrendered, but not him. He continued to size up his opponent, looking for any advantage he could gain. Obviously, Jet's stance had been weakened, but he was still armed, so Zuko still had to approach this cautiously…

Sending a small spark into the air as a distraction, he did a half roundhouse with his right leg, which Jet barely dodged, then followed through with a palm strike from his left hand, which Jet countered by swiping his swords together, shredding Zuko's arm. Jet didn't realize that Zuko had already thought of this, and placing his right hand over the swords quickly, fused them together. Then he kicked Jet into the wall using his left foot.

Jet staggered back, stepping his weight on his burnt foot and sending a shockwave of pain through his body, and it was during this second of weakness that Zuko utilized his extensive combat training to overpower Jet, sending kicks, palm strikes, punches, and finally grabbing Jet by the hair with his right hand and forcing his face into the wall, breaking Jet's nose and splattering his blood upon the wall some more.

He was about to do it again, noticing that Jet was somehow still conscious, when he heard Jet say something. He leaned over to the miserable Earth Kingdom pawn and demanded he repeat whatever it was he'd just said when Jet started laughing, a grotesque, hoarse laugh, broken up with chokes and coughs from his injuries.

"I said, 'Burn it.'" Jet finally repeated in between his laughter, and it was then Zuko realized they were not alone.

He turned, only to be slammed back into the wall he had slammed Jet into minutes before by an earthbender. The last thing he saw before he passed out was Jet's mangled face contorting into a horrid smile as flames overtook the records lingering behind him.

Sokka, Suki, Toph

"Sorry about that, Snoozles… thought you were somebody else…"

"It's alright… wait, what? You can tell who everybody is as long as you have your feet on the ground!"

"Not here I can't!" Toph spat back violently to him, glaring off to the side of where Sokka actually was.

"Guys! Let's just get out of here, alright!" Suki seemed extra perturbed at being here, more so than they were, but they both had to agree they wanted to leave.

They wandered for what seemed an hour or two… following Sokka… Neither Toph nor Suki had any idea where they were going though, so following him had seemed like a good idea. Finally, Suki and Sokka could see a clearing, and in the clearing…

"Aang!" Sokka shouted out, running over to where the young monk sat, knees to his chest.

"Sokka! I saw- …um…" Aang started but didn't know how he should finish.

"What? Who did you see?" Sokka questioned as Suki, Toph, and Momo along with them came closer.

"I saw Katara..." he replied meekly to Sokka's questioning, to which Sokka replied,

"Yeah, and I saw a big owl. There's some weird plant or something in this place, makes you see things... wait, why did you see my sister and I didn't?"

Aang was no longer paying attention to Sokka as he uttered the last part, no, Aang's eyes were glued to the strange blue mask in Toph's hands.

"What is that?" He asked shakily as he pointed to the mask.

"Um, yeah, Toph what is that?" Suki agreed and Toph defensively replied,

"It's Zuko's!"

"Who is Zuko?" Sokka asked confusedly, because this was the first time she'd actually used his real name around them and not referred to him as "Sparky", something she did because she had sensed his trepidation when Zuko had first revealed his name to her and Yue.

"Is that your friend who you call 'Sparky'?" Suki guessed and Sokka dumbly added,

"Oh, scarface?"

"…you mean that mask actually belongs to a real person!" Aang astounded all the others with his outburst, he had sort of shouted this particular statement, his excitement overcoming him.

"Yes, it belongs to Zuko (or Sparky), who is real. It also means he's alive and here in this swamp!"

Toph had just come to this realization and she almost jumped in excitement. Aang just stood flabbergasted for a minute, before Sokka's quizzing on the significance of the weird mask and Suki's prodding as well finally go through to him,

"I saw somebody wearing that mask at the Northern Air Temple, and he was firebending!"

Zuko

He awoke in a strange place, silvery mists swirled about, but there was no actual breeze to them. As he rose, he could see a figure approaching him, a familiar figure.

"Uncle!" he shouted out happily, then the realization hit him, his uncle had died a hundred years ago, so then he must be dead too.

"Nephew, it is good to see you again." The old general replied as he pulled Zuko into a hug.

"So then, Jet killed me? I just wish it hadn't been him." Zuko remarked bitterly, even in death it seemed his hatred for that straw eating sociopath remained.

"No, no, you are not dead. This is simply a dream." Iroh replied heartily, a smile overtaking his features.

"Oh…" Zuko remarked drearily back.

"Nephew, do not treat your life so lightly, you have so much to do yet."

"Like what? Die alone in a world that hates my race? Yeah, so much to live for…"

"She never told you?"

"Who? Told me what?"

"Your mother, she didn't say why she saved you?"

"What?"

"Nephew, I want you to listen to what I say, take it all in, then I will answer your questions."

"Um… okay?"

"Long ago, when the spirits and creatures first started to teach humans how to bend, and benders were first born, before the time of the Avatar, there was created a balance, which when broken would result in the destruction of the human realm. Years of war followed, needless to say, and the five great spirits decided to give their powers to one mortal, thus the Avatar was born, to bring peace to the four nations and keep the balance.

This balance, in simple terms, is the balance created by the four elements, as all four are necessary to live in the world. When the Fire Nation was decimated one hundred years ago, the last of the dragons, Ran and Shaw, they tried to teach firebending to outsiders from the other nations, but they, of course, could not control fire.

Thus it was that Ran and Shaw made the decision to raze the other nations to the ground as well, hoping the spirits would be able to reclaim what they could and recreate the world. This is not possible. The spirits live in their world and you in yours, which is why your mother and I planned to save you. We could only save one, and we chose you. You must restore the Fire Nation, stop Ran and Shaw along with the Avatar, you are the only one who can."

"Uncle, what about Azula? She was there with me."

"Azula… died along with your father, my brother, when he ordered the citizens to kill themselves before the enemy overtook the Fire Nation. She wasn't alive when you were put inside the temple's safe room."

"But I remember…"

But Iroh had disappeared, leaving Zuko alone to his thoughts in this strange place. Slowly, he began to hear voices, then he woke up to the inside of some strange metal container he'd been placed inside. The voices became clearer until… No, it couldn't be…

Katara, Yue

Yue had gotten much better as the moon rose over the desolate land, but still they had found no refuge. Katara was starting to wonder if there even were any buildings left standing on the mainland at all. Settling down for the evening on a flat area amongst large rocks, Katara went out and gathered some berries and other edible vegetation, as it seemed no animals lived here anymore.

Yue sat, dazed by the fire that Katara had started, thinking over the strangeness her dream had held and what it could have possibly meant. Was it a vision? Was she going to die by the sword?

"Yue!"

She heard Katara shout and she regained her surroundings, pulling her hand swiftly away from over the fire where it had been.

"What were you doing? Trying to be a firebender?" Katara jokingly questioned as she settled down beside the white haired girl.

Seeing the saddened look that played over her friends face, she comfortingly asked,

"What's wrong, Yue? You haven't been yourself recently…"

Yue was never the outgoing, expressive type, no she was more the quiet supporter, follower type, but still the change in her behavior was quite obvious to anyone who seriously knew her.

"I just-… I've just been having strange dreams recently."

Dreams were important means of communication for spirits, or at least that was what was believed in the Water Tribes, so to say Katara was interested now was to say Sokka liked meat, it was quite obvious and didn't need stating. With slight prodding, Katara got Yue to tell her the dream and afterward she tried to piece together a meaning that would ease Yue's nerves.

"Well, um, the moon is a great source of comfort for waterbenders, as we get our bending from her… and, um, you are feeling responsible for the death of the Fire Nation, because our ancestors did help to destroy it and now we are in the Fire Nation lands.

Um, you miss Zuko? And if he is Fire Nation, like we believed, then he would have a connection to the dragons…

(As for the creepy smile? Hmmm…) Oh! You think Zuko hates us now, because we… I… attacked him… and um, you are feeling uneasy about being in the Fire Nation and are afraid that an angry spirit might kill you?

…I don't know about that translation, but I tried my best, and it sort of makes sense…?"

"Thanks, Katara. I feel better about it now."

And the two talked and ate in with some slight conversation, like the reason why there were no structures near them and how they'd be at the Western Air Temple before they ever crossed paths with an Air Nomad heading there.

Finally tiring, the two fell asleep by the fire and had pleasant dreams of reuniting with friends. Katara woke first the next morning, her dream of meeting up with Aang again in some weird swamp cut short, she stretched her arms over her head and rose to go collect some more of those delicious berries they had eaten last night.

She had fashioned a small pouch out of a large leaf and some small vine-like fibers of a plant to put the berries in because they had no extra pouch or container to put them in. They actually had nothing other than a water skin a piece, because they had ended up in the Fire Nation after jumping off of the ship that was taking them to the Northern Water Tribe, when they jumped they left everything else they had behind, not that it was much because before that they had escaped the red dragon by the skin of their teeth.

Katara was humming a low Water Tribe tune when she hear some rustling behind her. She figured it was Yue and called out,

"I'm over here Yue!"

But the reply she heard was masculine as it said,

"Um, I think you have me confused with someone else…?"

She turned around quickly, dropping a few of the berries to the ground in her haste and came face to face with a tanned, brown haired boy, a year or two her senior. He shifted the piece of straw in his mouth as he said,

"Nice to meet you, name's Jet."

* * *

Author's "Oh my gosh! I can't believe I missed it last time, but-" Note: Last chapter was 10! w00t! I can't believe I missed it… Thanks all you guys who have been following this crazy, spastic updater and all of you who still continued to read after I epic failed on the whole updating thing. I love you guys! Keep sending me your opinions and your critiques!

I'm sorry I haven't really fixed the whole... switching perspective thing every paragraph, I just... actually have no excuse for it...so yeah, I tried to explain a few things this time… while adding in some action… and after rereading that last chapter… I'm sorry. I was so confused…

So, thanks again for everybody who has reviewed and stuff up to now, send me a request for a one-shot if you have reviewed (and yes, I know who you guys are!) and I'll write you something!

I also realize I am updating this like mad right now, but yeah, after last chapter, I epic focused and wrote this one. (again so sorry for the massive confusion of the last one, but now I have managed to reunite some peeps and therefore it can be slightly less… crazy… um, like how I actually did get Iroh in this fic? I love Iroh, but I really can't write him… so yes, that was a reason everyone in the Fire Nation died… as well as…. I didn't want to deal with Mai…)

So thanks again, again! And I hope this chapter makes more sense and also that it's less boring… I have found myself a bit boring lately… and it's bothersome… So, yeah, that's all I got. Yes, Zuko does never get to actually go through the record books himself, I did just get lazy and decide not to let him, I figured I'd just add Jet back in before rather than after, and it worked... so, yeah, poor Zuko. …crap. I still didn't get to Suki's swamp dream… oh well, next time maybe? (And feel free to guess what it is I'm setting up! Makes me happy when I write and others are like, "oh, well, obviously the plot is-" makes me seem less crazy… plus... I get ideas... yes, I am low.)

* * *

Totally just realized I reposted Chapter 12 twice instead of Chapter 11's reformatting... wow... super dumb! haha!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve: Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone, Only Darkness Everyday

* * *

Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph

"Yeah, and so what!" Toph curtly responded to Aang's sudden revelation that Zuko was a firebender.

"Wait… You knew and you didn't tell us?" Sokka quickly came back at Toph, who shrugged and said,

"Maybe? He burnt my arm once on accident, but I didn't really know until Twinkle Toes here pointed it out… And why would I tell you guys? Don't you all hate the Fire Nation or something? At least that's what everyone always told me…"

"Well, I don't hate the Fire Nation." Aang reflected absently before Sokka, gaping, exclaimed,

"But they're the ones who sent the dragons after us!"

A swift slap to the back of Sokka's head later and Suki stated,

"Sokka, you should pay attention, the dragons attacked because the balance between the Four Nations was disrupted, not some evil Fire Nation plot. Now let's just figure a way out of this creepy swamp and see if we can find this Zuko person, since if he's the last firebender who isn't scaly, then I'm guessing he's someone who can help restore the balance of the Four Nations by restarting the Fire Nation, right? So we really don't need to gape over the fact he's Fire Nation or that there might just be one firebender left, I mean, Aang was frozen for about a hundred years, wasn't he? So let's not worry about it and get out of here, agreed?"

Suki's no nonsense attitude had cleared up another issue brought before the group, and so now all they had to do was find Appa and get out of this swamp.

Katara, Yue

"La and Tui! What happened to you?" Katara quickly asked Jet, her new acquaintance.

"Well, I was attacked by a guy-"

"With a scar on his left eye?" Katara interrupted quickly, she was leading Jet back toward Yue in the hope that she could heal him slightly, if not totally, which is the reason she didn't see his suspicious glare that flashed over his face before he leveled it out to as pleasant a look he could achieve with a broken nose and busted lip along with the other, less sever, cuts and bruises on his face as well.

"Um, I'm not sure. He jumped me from behind?" He slyly replied, not willing to give any information to someone who was in any way connected to that scumbag firebender.

"Why did you think it was somebody with that description?"

"Well, uh, it's a long story and you probably wouldn't even believe me if I told you. …wait. What are you doing in the old Fire Nation? That's where we are, right?"

"Um, well, I'm an assistant to an archeologist, he left with another team to go explore… uh, somewhere else?" His feigned ignorance and his charm won Katara over quite easily, who honestly couldn't think of another reason why anyone would be here, she simply didn't have the paranoia to believe in Earth Kingdom secret societies and cover-up conspiracies.

As Yue saw Katara heading back along with a tall figure behind her, her heart skipped a beat for a moment. She'd thought Katara had tracked down Zuko and everything between them was sorted out and that he actually didn't hate them both, but then a tan brown haired boy with a beaten up face appeared instead of the black haired, pale, scarred boy that she'd hoped.

She would have deflated and sulked a little, but this newcomer needed medical attention by the looks of it and Katara's question of

"Can you heal him?"

confirmed the thought. Doing as she was told, once again, Yue went over to the boy, and summoning a glove of water, began to heal his face, making it good as new.

Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph

"Guys, ya ever feel like we're bein' watched?" Sokka asked finally after they had spent a couple of hours walking around in circles, after an hour of which having heard enough of Toph yell at inanimate objects that she was tripping over he had picked her up and started giving her a piggy-back ride, which she had mysteriously stopped complaining about…

"Sokka, you're just being paranoid!" Aang chirped happily, bouncing along through the thick underbrush and Suki agreed with a

"Yeah."

"No, seriously, I got a bad feeling about this place all of a sudden, especially since we decided we'd walk in a straight line to get out of here, which is kinda ridiculous since I was leading just fine-"

"Sokka! You had us walking in circles! I know, because I started cutting notches in the trees and we passed the same notch three times!"

"Anyway, Suki, I'm glad you said that, because behold! Your notch in the tree up ahead! So how did that happen if we were walking in a straight line?"

"Um, Sokka has a good point, that is one of your tree notches, Suki."

Before Suki could respond, a viney tentacle wrapped around her ankle and started dragging her off through the swamp. With lightning quick reflexes, she whipped out her bladed fan and severed the vine, freeing her leg just as Aang and Sokka along with Toph reached her side again.

"Let me down, Snoozles!" Toph demanded as Suki rose to her feet and Aang blocked an attack from the giant swamp monster with a gust of airbending.

Sokka slid Toph down onto the ground and telling her which direction the enemy was in, seeing as how the swamp was messing with her "sight" still, he pulled out his boomerang and joined Aang and now Suki in combating the thing, whatever it was.

Katara, Yue

After Yue finished healing Jet, he stood and was about to dismiss himself, saying,

"Well, I'd better get back, otherwise th' guys'll start to worry."

But Katara, quick and sly as any merchant suggested,

"Why don't we go with you? After all whoever did this to you might still be out there, and I just know neither me nor Yue could bear the thought of you going off alone and getting hurt again."

Jet seemed hesitant, but eventually agreed, neither Katara nor Yue could have fathomed that he was indeed the enemy in this situation and that they were playing right into his plan.

Zuko

He heard the very familiar voices of the two girls distinctly amongst the masculine voices of the detested Earth Kingdom scoundrels. They seemed to be being welcomed into the camp, but for the life of him he couldn't fathom why.

Had they been cohorts of Jet the whole time? Secretly luring him back to his homeland to deliver him back into the earth Kingdom's clutches? Why? And how had he not seen this betrayal coming? He was usually so cautious in his interactions with people... Also, if they'd planned to give him over, why had they attacked him before at Ember Island? There would have been no reason for that...

He was highly confused as he tried to make sense of all of this, then deciding to just forget it for the moment and try to think of an escape plan. Just as he started to contemplate his escape he felt the metal container he was in shift and heard Jet mutter some sort of directions before hearing him sneer,

"I'll see you later, ash-sack."

Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph

After a long and grueling battle with a seemingly indestructible swamp monster, Toph finally decided that enough was enough, and she pounded both her little feet into the muddy earth, making it rise up all around them.

"All right, I've had it!" Toph shouted,

"You old weirdo, explain what's up!" and she raised her hand to point to the basic direction of a strange old man who was entrapped along with Suki, Sokka, and well, Aang had freed himself.

"Well, dag, I'll be. Sure thin' little missy. If yer not here ta bog up th' swamp, then I may's well." He replied smiling a grin which was missing a few teeth.

"Gosh, it was just an old redneck under the monster? Sheesh!"

And the foursome proceeded to follow the strange swamp dweller further into the swamplands.

Zuko

After his metal prison clanged and pounded along the ground, being dragged he guessed by some ignorant dirt herder, it finally stopped moving. He heard several of the enemies voices outside the container, but they were talking in such a thick Earth Kingdom accent that he couldn't exactly make out what they were saying to one another.

Finally he heard the top of his dark prison rotating, he guessed they were opening it up, going to get him out into some sort of other prison he guessed. Well, he'd make a run for it instead! As soon as the cage opened he jumped out, his eyes burning from being exposed to light after so long in darkness, but he didn't have time to let them adjust.

He kneed the kidney of the idiot who'd released him, elbowed the face of the moron who rushed him from behind, and phoenix-kicked the dirt herder to his left. The man who'd been on his right he hadn't sensed and he got in a blow to the back of Zuko's head, his wound in point of fact. He reeled from the pain, but delivered a half-wheel kick to the man's "family jewels" before he could hit Zuko again and count him down for the count.

Yue, Zuko

His eyes still adjusting, Zuko ran. He had apparently been taken to the bottom of some deep cavern, as he couldn't even see the sky only some torches arranged upon the walls. His eyes finally adjusted to the low light as he burst out into the moonlit night. He stopped in his tracks, hearing a surprised gasp to his side, and glancing over he caught sight of white hair. It was Yue.

He stopped and stared, her blue eyes gleaming softly in the moonlight in comparison with his golden ones which reflected harshly. There they stood, eyes locked, the moonlight illuminating them in the darkness in that city, that same place she'd seen in her dreams. She slowly reached her hand up to touch her stomach, making sure she did not have the same fatal wound as in the dream.

She didn't. Her eyes watered up with some unshed tears as she opened her mouth to speak, but the second's delay was all that Jet had needed to successfully pound Zuko unconscious with his strange hook swords. Yue looked in shock and horror at Jet, a look which made him contort his face into a dark grimace.

"You pity the ash-sack? You takin' his side, sea-whore?"

Jet moved maliciously towards Yue and unfortunately, Katara was too far away to hear her scream for help...

* * *

Author's Note: ...yeah, i know... I'm a bad person... I never update... I'm sorry... loads of craziness... but really, no good excuses... I'm sorry... Thanks for still reading this though... Toph just answered the whole, btw: yeah we get it, Zuko's a firebender, GET OVER IT! So, that's good.

Even though this chapter took me forever, I don't really like it...

Also, I hated that swampy monster... -_- and we didn't have katara in the GAang to make stuff work, so I quick fought it, sorry...

I tried to add more action for Zuko's part though... What will happen to Yue? Will Zuko save her? Will Katara? Will I keep it canon and kill her off or make her the moon? Ooooh! Til next time! Thanks! :D


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: If the Stars Fell Out of the Sky, and My Tears Roll Into the Ocean

* * *

Yue, Zuko

Knocked down, not unconscious as Jet may have believed, unable to force his muscles to move, he watched as Jet approached her. He wished not to see, but he could not bear to look away either. Every fiber in his being screamed for her to just run away, for her to be unharmed and escape, he knew full well the cruelty of Jet, and his soul ached that it not happen to her. Not her... Just RUN!

She shrank back, drawing away from the suddenly changed man. What happened? This was surely not the same person she had healed earlier, and surely not the sweet boy who had spent time with her and Katara... But he was! How twisted his face had become, how malicious he seemed, and how terrified she was!

Her mind urged her to run, but her instinct told her she mustn't! She couldn't leave, no matter what happened, she wouldn't! She wouldn't leave Zuko there to Jet's mercy! Even though she didn't quite understand what was happening, she knew Jet had to be stopped, every fiber of her soul demanded it now!

She was trying to devise a plan of action to stop him, knowing full well she had never had the power to waterbend in an offensive manner, she only ever had the power to heal, but it mattered not anyway, she no longer had the time afforded to her to think, Jet suddenly rushed her with his twin hooked swords and... blood gushed out onto the scorched earth...

Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph

Finally they came to a ginormous tree, and sitting down on the roots, the swamp man began to chat with them, explaining that he'd felt a disturbance in the swamp and that it was his job to make sure the swamp wasn't bothered.

"Yessiree, them spirits been all hullabaloo since the dragons been goin' round an' such. An' they don't really like anybody since, ya'll see? But it ain't exactly their fault either, it was us guys that botched up anyhoos."

"What do you mean? Care to speak understandably?" Toph frustratedly remarked, she couldn't understand the swamp man at all and shortly decided it really didn't matter and took to playing with Momo a little ways off rather than pay anymore attention.

"Well, lil' missy, th' earth and water peoples' bugged up the spirits way. They took away one a' th' elementals and then 'xpected not ta pay for it. But they're angry now, madder than a buzzard-hornet, an' that's no good." the swamp man continued, trying to further explain for Toph, not that she cared anymore at this point.

"That why we had the weird visions?" Aang questioned earnestly.

"Welp, th' swamp shows past, present, and future, but it's up to you to figure it out, methinks."

"So," Suki began trying to think critically over what was said, even though she wasn't a big fan of thinking and talking, more a hands on fighter she was, "The spirits are angry because the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes destroyed the Fire Nation?"

"Nope. It's 'cause all them firebenders is dead."

"Heeeey, wait a minute though," Sokka interjected suddenly, "There is still one firebender left, so how do you explain that?"

"Welp... I'm guessin' nobody knows it, the spirits left, well, the water ones did, and the earth spirits are still just biding their time, they don't wanna mess with anything yet, they ain't protecting anybody anymore though. They's lettin' the dragons set things ta right. And the air spirits ain't talking no more, they's used ta whisper, I thank, but not no more's."

"So, we have to find the spirits that are still here with us and show them everything's okay! And that balance can still be achieved? Is that it? Then they'll all be happy?" Aang asked joyfully, he'd always had luck with spiritual training in the old temple, so he figured he could talk to spirits fairly well enough.

"What ya askin' me fer? I don't know nothin' 'bout anything like that, all I's sayin' is that they's all angry and you oughtn't a walked into the swamp like that. An' that's what all the swamp tol' me. But, everything is connected, so maybe you'll see something to that lil' plan o' yours."

Soon after that conversation Appa was rescued from some other fairly harmless Swamp people and the GAang enjoyed a restful night dining with them, although only Toph and Sokka seemed to enjoy the food at all...

Yue, Zuko

He caught her squarely in the arm, and a crimson flow splashed onto the ground, but had she not dodged the bit she had it would have been a much more severe abdominal wound. She sprang away from him, not to retreat, but rather to regain some distance as she would be clearly overpowered in close combat with the enraged Jet. Whipping the last remnant of water from her waterskin, it conformed to her hand as a glove and she deftly healed the cut in her arm good as new.

Jet was not about to let her heal herself unharmed and he again charged wildly at her, trying his luck to see if he coulod yet again cut the maiden. She dodged better this time, but stumbled over onto her back in her attempt. He wheeled around quickly and was raising his right sword to strike when she threw a handful of the scorched Fire Nation soil into his eyes and kicked his shin. He let out an angry howl as she attempted to crawl away from him while he was distracted. She had been lucky so far, but it wouldn't be long before that would run out... she needed an attack plan, she needed offense...

Suddenly an idea came to her, she'd heal Zuko while dodging and distracting Jet, so Zuko would be able to catch him off guard! She flicked her wrists and the healing balm of water rushed over to where Zuko lied. She didn't stay focused on where he was, or even how the process was really going as Jet regained his sight and composure and began his assault once more. Her fight with the dragon had helped her become agile and better able to handle her fear, but still he was trained in war so well and she was barely a novice at fighting at all.

More than once he caught her, just barely, but still little crimson droplets fell to the greedy earth, parched for any moisture it readily soaked her blood up. Still she persisted, in her battle with Jet, even though the odds seemed entirely against her. Healing Zuko from far away without obvious steady motion from her hands seemed to be working, but she didn't know how much longer she could keep it up...

Suddenly the gastly sound of gigantic wings flapping overhead curdled the blood of both Jet and Yue as they attempted to find the direction from whence it came, there was no question in their minds it was a dragon, but where and which one was it? Yue, noting Jet's distraction, turned all her focus on getting Zuko healed and able to move, her thoughts of fighting Jet completely gone, who would fight in the midst of a dragon raid?

Katara

The sound, no, smell, no, even sight, these all woke Katara from her brief respite as the horror of a dragon attack consumed the llittle camp deep within the old Fire Nation. Katara instinctively clutched her handy waterskin and ran out of the tent that had been lent to her, it was simply a bigger target for the dragon to burn anyway. Moving quickly, she determined to figure out what needed to be done, who needed help, and who could help.

Out she ran, and quick as a whip, she gathered water to herself from the cannisters and holders which littered the camp, as the little troup aparently carried their own water supply with them in this desolate land. Fire was spreading rapidly through-out the camp, but still she could not see the dragon, which was odd, very odd. In fact, it seemed as though, judging by the sound of its flapping wings, it was even getting further away... She essayed to quench the fire and desided not to worry about locating the dragon, that would happen soon enough she figured, and the fire was spreading so fast through the dry air...

Yue, Zuko

Whatever had happened, he wasn't really sure, he was fading in and out of consciousness for a while there, but suddenly he felt like 100%. Rising to his feet, he looked up to see the creator of this apparent miracle, Yue. Her eyes were focused on him and she was waving her hands gracefully about, healing his wounds. Fire burned in the distance behind her and the light was so intense it made it hard for him to focus his eyes at first, but in a moment he did manage to get them focused.

That was when he saw her face pale, and her eyes water slightly in pain as red began to cover he abdomen. Jet smirked as he pulled his hooked swords out painfully slow, delighting in the anguish that consumed Zuko.

* * *

Author's note: Yeah, I'm evil. Also, I realize i super fail at updating... Also, I didn't follow my own mandate and I updated before I was done switching the chapters all out, but... I just couldn't let this sit on my computer anymore... So...

Also, I want opinions on how the re-formating works for everyone, I personally like it, but I developed it after hearing numerous, and very well warranted complaints about how incredibly long my paragraphs were. (Sorry it took me so long to figure it out!)

So, anyhow... I will just say, I am getting back into the flow of this story, and I'm sorry I didn't update it in forever, but in my defense, i did get engaged and have been planning a wedding, so I was slightly pre-occupied... it's 100% true.

Also, I can undoubtedly promise that until all the chapters are re-formated, I will not add Chapter 14, it's not even totally finished yet... but, I will add it as soon as possible. Thanks for sticking with it, and hope half of you are still following, and shout-out to those just joining! :D


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: I Found the Love That I Knew I'd Miss

* * *

Yue

She felt a sting, terrible pain, then numbness. Everything seemed to slow down as she lowered her eyes to see what had happened, why she had felt the pain. All her senses were alive at once, but she could barely feel, barely smell, barely see at the same time. The air was so hot, so dry, she could barely breathe anymore, when had it become so hot?

She slowly raised her arm to her stomach where she had felt the pain and then she felt and saw a new sensation. Wet. Red was spewing profusely from her stomach, but why? How? She painstakingly raised her eyes once more to see Zuko, standing a few feet away from her, his eyes strikingly enraged. He rose his arm and pointed, at her? Or at who? It all seemed vaguely familiar... Why? What had happened?

"Zuko...?" she managed to breathe faintly before she slumped forward, faint and nearly lifeless.

Zuko

The fading of the full moon into a horrid blood red color didn't sway his attention, the air that had become so heated from his loss of control over his temper and his fire bending didn't, nor did the dragon flying overhead, nor the flames that uncontrollably whirled around his closed fists, but Jet's happy little smirk he bore as he stepped over Yue's limp body, that made him snap. He was going to kill that poor excuse for a human, and fully righteously so.

He easily sidestepped Jet's first blind rush, Jet liked to lull his opponent into a sense of security by pretending he wasn't as good of a fighter as he actually was, which Zuko well knew. So, even though he sidestepped easily, he also bent fire up in a semi-wall to block the blindside Jet was going to attempt to strike him with.

Yue had done a great job of healing him, he felt better than ever, and even though Jet seemed to be having a hard time breathing the super0heated air that surrounded them, due to Zuko's anger and subsequent overactive fire bending, he felt fine, taking in his measured breaths and fire bending accordingly. He shot a blast of fire straight at Jet, which Jet deftly avoided with a rolling dodge.

However, his dodge had left him vulnerable, which Zuko took full advantage of, he sent two shots of flame scorching across the ground on both sides of Jet utilizing his feet. Jet quickly dodged the two blasts, using his arms to shove himself off of the ground and straight into the air.

Again, this was exactly what Zuko had wanted him to do, he knew Jet was too quick, too agile, and too good of a fighter for him to be let fight at his own pace, so Zuko pushed him, and hard. Just as Jet sprung off the ground, Zuko shot at him and struck him full in the face with a Phoenix drop-kick, a fire bender specialty, a drop-kick laced with flames. Jet and Zuko both landed in an unceremonious "thud" on the ground, however, Jet was slower to recover to his feet than Zuko, which cost him another burn, this time on his arm.

Zuko, however, enraged almost beyond rational thought, had failed to remember how deadly Jet was with his hooked swords and was subsequently caught in the left arm with one. As it cut into his arm, he grew all the more enraged at the thought that Jet had hurt Yue with the very same weapon. Beyond rationality now, he grasped the sword with his right hand and melted the very metal that composed it, until it was nothing more than a puddle of molten metal on the ground.

Jet was very disturbed at losing his sword, even if Zuko had burned his hand in the process of destroying the sword, which it strangely didn't seem he had, they were a pair and he wielded them as such for a reason, he was now only at half power, and he was afraid.

Katara

She had been helping the encampment in putting out the fires and gathering those wounded all into one area when suddenly she blacked out. She was still conscious, but she couldn't control her body, couldn't even speak. It was as though she were watching someone else inside her own body. Her head raised to view the moon as it turned into a sickening blood color, the water she had been bending fell limply to the ground, as though water bending had just ceased to exist anymore, but yet it did.

Viewing as she did, like someone else was in entire control of her body and she was just looking out of it, trapped inside, she saw water bend and swirl all about her, in an oddly malicious way, then she heard her own voice say,

"You people, did we not give you another chance? Did we not? And now you decide to kill Tui? Was Agni not enough for you? Now I will show you our true wrath."

Then she watched as all the water in the camp swirled about, trapped, and destroyed all those she had just been helping. None in the camp were spared. Not one. What was happening to her? Why was any of this happening?

Avatar Aang, Sokka

He jolted awake suddenly, as though something terrible were stirring in his very bones, as though something had shaken the very core of his being. As he was rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he noticed a bright light outside his tent, so being naturally curious, he went to investigate. The light reminded him of what happened on Kyoshi Island, not that he remembered too much of that anyway, just a bright light and Aang and then the dragon leaving, but still, he soon found out why the light reminded him of such.

The light was in point of fact Aang, in his Avatar State as he called it, he was just sitting down in a meditative stance on the ground, the bright white light emanating from his arrow tattoos.

"Hey, Aang, or Avatar State whatever, what's going on?" He asked, fully expecting no reply back, but he had to try, right?

"There is a terrible disturbance..." Avatar State Aang replied in a very strange voice.

"Well, I could have told you that." Sokka replied looking up at the blood red moon.

"Something definitely not good is going down somewhere..."

Zuko

Jet was by nature something of a coward, when disadvantaged he preferred to run and regroup with his subordinates until he had overwhelming forces and could win a fight. Now, at the start of this fight, he had assumed Zuko was still very weak, he had underestimated Yue's healing skills, and he also assumed Zuko would be quite preoccupied with trying to check on Yue and see if she was going to be okay or if she was even still alive, but neither of these two assumptions were correct.

Zuko seemed to be entirely focused on getting revenge for Yue and he also appeared to be fully healed, both of these factors had made Zuko the stronger of the two of them, which Jet had just managed to realize, his stupid cockiness had made him unable to realize it until now, and now he was more than ready to flee, but again, he failed to foresee what was coming next.

He was so focused on making sure Jet did not escape, so focused on making him pay for what he had done to Yue, to him, to the world he was sure, that he did not notice the huge flapping wings resounding behind him. Jet noticed and his tan face went pale as he realized the red dragon was right there upon them, his will to leave now more concentrated than ever, he forgot entirely about Zuko and just bolted.

The dragon reared its head back, about to level the plain and eradicate the three little persons upon it with flame, when suddenly, it stopped. It had just seen something it hadn't seen in over a hundred years. A firebender.

Zuko, still not noticing the huge dragon behind them whose shadow had consumed the little clearing where they were, saw Jet escaping and was not about to let him. He swept out with his right, then his left foot sending little waves of fire straight toward Jet, making him dodge to avoid them. Seeing that this was not slowing him down, he sent a running fire-shot from his fist at him, and catching Jet squarely in the back, made him stumble onto the ground, where Zuko caught up to him.

Katara

She could not be sure exactly what was happening, she was trying her hardest not to see, not to notice anything anymore. All she could be sure of was that she was crossing the ocean for some reason, why she had no idea. Then something else strange happened. The moon went back to its usual pale luster, changing back from the blood red it had been, and she blacked out entirely, falling limply into the ocean, her bending no longer letting her simply "walk" across it.

Zuko

After he finally caught up to Jet, something inside him snapped and he just began to beat the living daylights out of his most hated enemy. Not even utilizing his bending, he wreaked havoc on Jet with only his fists, to the point where Jet would have been very unrecognizable to even his closest friends, but he was still alive.

Zuko had yet to realize the dragon behind him, who by this point had landed and was gazing in awe at him, little did he know he had single-handedly renewed hope to the dragon, for if there was one firebender left, then that firebender could have children and continue a line of firebenders, so that in the future there would once more be firebenders within the Fire Nation. So, the dragon was very curious about its new found little friend and very protective as well, quite obviously.

His rage subsiding, he sat back, moving away from Jet's mangled and battered form, he was really quite shocked at what he had done, what he had been able to do, but yet, as hated as Jet was to him, he could not brig himself to kill him. He would not stoop to Jet's level, he retained his humanity even through the three years of torture in the Earth Kingdom, and even through the year of relentless pursuit by Jet, and he refused to lose it now. Remembering Yue, he dashed over to her to see if she was still alive.

Zuko may have been merciful, humane, but dragons however, after 100 years of fighting and after they watched as all the firebender, well, almost all, were killed, they were spiteful. The dragon did not care at all for the Earth Kingdom boy at all, and it was not merciful. Using its flames, it removed him permanently from the earth, his ashes breaking apart and drifting in the wind across the barren Fire Nation.

Gently turning Yue over into his arms, Zuko found that she was still breathing, but just barely. The pool of blood that soaked the dry earth was enough to tell him she was seriously injured, but he did not have any sort of medical training, he only knew basic bandaging and possibly how to set a broken bone, but that was iffy even. He did not have time to debate all this though, he at least had to stop the bleeding, that would buy him a little time he hoped, but still it was not promising.

Sealing the wound the only way he knew how, but cauterizing it very carefully with his firebending, he actually managed to get Yue conscious for a brief second, but only a second. She opened her eyes and jumped slightly due to the pain, and when he saw her pale blue eyes open he half-shouted her name, hoping that maybe she was awake to stay, but a moment later she had passed out once more.

"I never wanted it to be come to this, to be like this, Yue." he said before contemplating his next move.

He had noticed the dragon by now, he was just strangely unconcerned about its presence, he even felt, safe? His thoughts raced for a moment before he realized what it was he had to do, where he had to go if he wanted Yue to be alright, and looking up into the red dragon's eyes he pleaded,

"Please, can you take me to the Northern Water Tribe?"

* * *

Author's Note: Hey dudes and dudettes! So, this chapter kinda maybe cleared some stuff up? Maybe placed some pieces together for ya? See my very subtle, but cleverly laced storyline I have been working on here? Yes, Yue can sorta see the future in her dreams, just, they are kinda muddled, but you guys probably guessed that? Also, if you guys are like, "what the crap just happened?" as to all the craziness, it will be made perfectly clear in future chapters.

So, I am kinda pleased to announce that this is pretty much the end of the dragons going crazy and attacking everyone, they no longer have a reason to, but let me just state that they really don't like anyone other than Zuko, so they will still probably be causing a slight bit of mayhem. I liked the dragons too much to have them crazy and having to be put down and all, so the solution, I found it.

I am pleased with this chapter, and hope you guys are too. Also, very happy note here, for all of us, I plan to start updating this fic every Saturday, but, that being said, August 4th may have 2 updates and August 11 will definitely not have an update, but I may update that Monday, depending on my motivation. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and the journey thus far, 14 chapters! Thanks!

Also, I hated that swampy monster... -_- and we didn't have katara in the GAang to make stuff work, so I quick fought it, sorry...

I tried to add more action for Zuko's part though... What will happen to Yue? Will Zuko save her? Will Katara? Will I keep it canon and kill her off or make her the moon? Ooooh! Til next time! Thanks! :D


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Now and Again, We Try, to Just Stay Alive

* * *

Katara

She awoke face down on a sandy shore, she had no idea where. The sand was soft, smooth, not like the harsh, coarse, seemingly burnt, sand of the Fire Nation, so she guessed it was the Earth Kingdom where she had landed, after all, the shores of the Northern Water Tribe would have been much colder and frozen at this time of the year.

She was not sure at all how she had gotten here though, she had remembered passing out while she was in the midst of the ocean, so how had she ended up here on this beach? Would it not make sense that she should have drowned out there in the sea? So how had she gotten here?

She did not know, and she assumed the answer was not going to spring forth out of the sand, so she decided it might be best to head out, to find the nearest town or whatever. But then, she was not even sure she wanted to see people either, the images of those Earth Kingdom people whom she, no, not her but something, someone else inside her, had killed made her consider never seeing or being near people again…

And then she wondered about Yue… Was she okay? Had she managed to escape the dragon attack somehow? What had happened to her? For some reason, Katara felt very uneasy when she thought about Yue's fate.

Zuko

The dragon had surprisingly listened to him and put its head down on the ground so he could get on and ride it to the Northern Water Tribe, which is how he had managed to get where he was now with Yue so quickly. He had asked the dragon to land a bit away from the actual city, sensing that a dragon flying over the city then landing to drop off its passengers might be a tad upsetting to the natives, so they had landed just a ways off.

It was lucky he was quite muscular from having been on the run for a year, if he had been a weakling, he would never have made it, not that Yue was particularly heavy, just… the snow and ice made it quite treacherous by itself, let alone trying to gently as possible but quickly as possible carry a severely wounded person. It was also lucky he was a firebender, he would have frozen before he even made it to the city walls, as neither of them had particularly warm clothing on, but he guessed hers was more insulated than his, still, he concentrated on his breathing and warmed himself and Yue up with the "Breath of the Dragon" as his Uncle had taught him in his firebender training.

As he approached the towering walls of the Northern Water Tribe's capital city, he felt a sting of uneasiness, he had lost what little trust he had in people, and he was fairly certain in the back of his mind that he would regret this later, but this was the only sure-fire place he knew of that would have healers, so he continued his approach.

Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph

Now that they had left the creepy swamp and wandered aimlessly for a few days, including last night where Sokka swore the moon was all red and stuff, by the time he had woken her and Toph up, it was normal, must have been something he ate, Aang couldn't corroborate his story either, saying he did not remember anything, anyway, they finally had found a nice-enough looking village along the outskirts of a huge forest.

It was after dark, but they had slept in that morning due to Sokka waking everyone up for no apparent reason so they were not tired and had continued traveling after dark. The village sure was quiet, there was no one out, no lights on at all, nothing.

"Place must be full of old people that go to sleep at like, 6, or something..." Sokka suggested as the foursome walked through the desolate streets.

"Nope. The peeps are awake, they're just hiding." Toph said smugly, pointing to a large building in the center of the town, just down the street from them.

So, with that answer, the four headed in the direction of the huge building without much thought as to why all the people were hiding, after all, with all the recent dragon attacks, it was sort of logical, now was it not? The truth however, was that they were hiding from something else entirely…

Zuko

Surprisingly enough, when he reached the gate, it had already been opened for him to enter, a sentry had probably spied him coming and announced for the benders to open the giant ice gate. He would have marveled at the waterbender's paradise that the city was, except he was far more concerned with getting Yue to a healer, she had steadily been growing colder and the closer he had gotten to the city, the less he was able to use his firebending until he had stopped altogether, so they were both freezing.

He had been feeling strange ever since coming to the lands of the Northern Water Tribe, but as he entered the city he felt even stranger, like something was slowly drawing away all his strength… He fought through the strange feeling and proceeded to the first person he saw half-shouting at the poor waterbender,

"I need a healer, she's badly wounded. I did all I could, but she needs a healer, NOW!"

"Th-this way." Was the automatic response from the poor confused waterbender who proceeded to lead him through the pathways and canals of the gigantic city.

Strangely enough, the huge ice city reminded him of his own nation's capital city of a hundred years ago, giant, magnificent, splendid. ,,,Only, his city had been destroyed by the same people who had lived in this one, so the reminiscence it brought on was laced with a bitter sting too.

Finally, the waterbender brought him to a smallish hut very near the palace gates and spoke to the elderly woman there, Yugoda, saying,

"Um, Yugoda, there's a girl here, she needs your attention."

Then the man left, leaving Zuko alone with only the unconscious Yue and the old woman. Zuko nervously set Yue down where Yugoda instructed him to and then stood nervously off to the side, watching with eager and worried eyes to see what the old healer woman was doing. Yugoda noted his nervousness and began asking him some simple questions,

"What is your name?" she asked as she pulled some bright blue glowing water out of a huge urn.

"Um, Lee?" he replied back, he was not really great at lying…

Yugoda noticed his apprehension and decided not to ask too much more, it was probably better she did not know anymore about whoever these two were, there were tales of strange underground prisons and such in the Earth Kingdom, perhaps these two had escaped one of them, or they were two kids who had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time either way, she was better off not knowing.

All she needed to know, from looking at this girl's wound, was that she needed serious healing, and it may help her to know just how the girl had gotten injured, so she asked,

"How did she manage to get injured so?"

"Um, well, she was stabbed with two hook swords…" He responded hesitantly, not wanting to answer but replying because he assumed it might help.

"I see. How long ago did this happen?"

"Um, last night…"

"During the red moon!" Yugoda asked panicking, a red moon was a bad omen to her people, and so anyone who was injured during it may have been cursed by the spirits, so she stopped her healing long enough to actually look at the girl's face, and that's when she noticed,

"Merciful Tui! I can't believe my old eyes, she's Yue!"

"Um…?" Zuko was quite shocked that he had, in point of fact, brought Yue back to her apparent home, or at least to a place where people recognized her, if not her home, then somewhere she had frequented often.

He was quite unaware of what he should do or say back to the old woman, that coupled with the fact that he had been feeling progressively worse, made him just stand dully in the corner. Yugoda, however, it seemed was all in a hustle and bustle, she even shouted for an aide to come from an apparent back room which he had not noticed upon entering, he was too preoccupied with getting Yue healed.

The aide came over to Yugoda and then Yugoda whispered something into her ear and out of the place she ran, faster than an eel-hound, which confused him, but maybe Yugoda needed some sort of extra-special healing something or another? He was not sure, but he also did not question too much, he was feeling rather hazy at this point…

Aang, Sokka, Suki, Toph

As they neared the building, someone from inside suddenly shouted, "Watch out!"

But it was too late, they had failed to see or even hear the ginormous black and white monster that had crept up behind them. It swatted both Suki and Sokka to the side, sending them both flying into the house to their left, and then it lunged at Aang making him dodge far off into the air.

Seemingly targeting Toph, it reached out and grabbed her, and for some reason she could not for the life of her figure out what was going on. She could not "see" anything besides the village and the villagers, so what was attacking them?

After grabbing Toph, it headed off into the depths of the forest where it had apparently come from. Aang chased after it, but was unable to keep up, so he headed back to the village after chasing it for a while and losing its trail to see if he could get any information from the villagers and to see if Sokka and Suki were okay.

Zuko

Yugoda had been fervently healing Yue since the aide had left a few moments ago, beads of sweat forming on her brow from her intense concentration. He had not really noticed how long the aide had been gone, nor did he really pay much attention to the footsteps which were getting closer to the tent either, strangely it was taking all his attention to see straight, maybe he was just exhausted? When was the last time he had slept? Or eaten?

Zuko's thoughts were interrupted when a Water Tribe man suddenly burst into the healing hut. He was older, mostly bald with some white hair and a white beard, and he immediately looked over at Zuko as soon as he entered.

"Did you bring her here?" the man asked coldly.

"Uh-m, yeah?" Zuko barely managed to say, he was feeling incredibly light-headed now, but he himself figured it was just exhaustion and the cold.

Then, looking at Yugoda, the man asked, "What is her condition?"

Yugoda replied back to him without looking up from her healing, "She is in serious condition. The hook swords which injured her were pulled out very forcefully, causing more damage than if she had just simply been stabbed. I am trying my best, but with the moon waning now, I cannot say now what the outcome will be."

The man looked downward, seeming to think on Yugoda's words for a moment, then he looked again at Zuko but before he could say anything another Water Tribesman came into the hut saying, "Master Pakku! Chieftain Arnook wants the kidnapper confined until he decides what his punishment shall be."

To this, the older man, Pakku, sighed, "Very well then, if that is his order…"

Zuko was not sure what was going on exactly, but he did not assume it had anything to do with him, he had never kidnapped anyone, so they could not have been talking about him he figured. He figured wrong. When Pakku and the other man started to approach him, he realized that for some reason he had been labeled the kidnapper. He did not want to fight, one being he was mostly out of it by now, but two being that they were still inside the hut where Yue was being healed, so instead he simply tried to explain that he was not a kidnapper and that he had not hurt Yue.

"I didn't kidnap Yue! And I didn't… I didn't hurt her… It was… Jet… he did it…" Zuko barely managed to say, fighting off unconsciousness until he had mostly finished then collapsing. Pakku caught him, and then speaking to Yugoda said,

"Get one of your pupils to accompany me to the dungeon, this boy appears very ill as well."

Sokka, Suki

Dusting the debris off of himself, he stood back up and looked around. the monster was gone, and so were Aang, Toph and Suki. He wondered what had happened for a moment, but then hearing some rubble move to his side he looked over and noticed Suki was attempting to free herself from debris as well. Being the chivalrous gentleman that he was, he walked over and helped her up, really he was kinda just hoping for a reward kiss, but all he got was a "thanks" instead. It still counted.

Heading over to the villagers who had now come out of their hiding place, he asked them,

"What the heck was that freaky monster?"

Suki looked over at him through the sides of her eyes, he was as straight-forward as ever, but she too was curious, she had to admit.

"Hei Bai, it is an evil spirit that has come to curse us. It takes away one of our number every night and destroys our village, that is why we were hiding."

"Oh, um, okay then. So, where are our two little friends? The angry one and the one with the arrow tattoos?" Sokka asked, gesturing quite hilariously with his hands.

"The little girl was taken… the boy chased after her…" Another villager spoke up, it was the same person who had tried to warn them.

"Oh… Well… which way did they go?"

Sometimes, Sokka's stupid bravery impressed Suki. She had not been even willing to ask that, and after he had, she mentally kicked herself for being such a coward. The answer however, did not come from one of the villagers, instead it was Aang who came floating back into the village that pretty well defined the direction in which they had gone. But Toph was not with him and when he hung his head low and said that he had lost the trail, they knew why. Sokka just gave Aang a side hug and said as any big brother would,

"It's okay, we will find her."

Toph

Unsure of exactly where she was, and unable to bend even though she had her feet firmly planted on the ground therefore being unable to "see" she sat down, completely mistified as to what she should do. She wished she could be with her friends again, not just Aang and those guys, but with Zuko and Yue. She really missed them.

Zuko had taken care of her after her family had been killed by the dragons, he had become her new family, like a big brother. Yue had been nice too, and even though she was quiet, she seemed to have a really strong spirit, and she'd healed Zuko too. But now, they were both gone and she was not even sure if they were alive.

Thinking about all this made tears well up into her eyes, and she figured that noboy would see her anyway, so she cried. It was not like her to cry, and she was not even as old as the others were, but still she had not cried since the day her parents died. It was cathardic now though, well, right up until she felt a hand on her shoulder. She swatted the hand away and backed away from the direction it had come from shouting,

"Who's there! Leave me alone!"

An older man's gentle voice replied, "I'm sorry, I did not mean to frighten you. You just seemed upset, so I was going to offer you some tea."

* * *

Author's Note: So, here's an extra special super update a day before I was scheduled to update! Woot! So, this chapter was kinda filler, we had to get Yue healed, kinda figure out that Katara is okay, get back to Aang and the GAang, and also get back to the storyline, which, SPOILER: we get to have some more of the actual plot given away next chapter, awesome, right? Ah, this fic makes me happy again... like it used to... I really do enjoy it.

Also, I think I finally fixed all the chapters, so chapter 8 is chapter 8, and chapter 11 is chapter 11, thanks for the patience and thanks Kitsune1818 for catching it when I didn't.

And yeah, I'm a reviews whore (don't tell my fiance'! :D), so I just love all the reviews I'm getting from you guys. You're makin' it awesome. Btw: 15 whole chapters, that's a personal best, and let's just keep it going shall we? Yes, there will still be an update tomorrow, pending no zombie apocalypse, just sayin'. :)


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: If I Go I Can Only Hope I Make It To The Other Side

* * *

Zuko

He awoke from under a mountain of coarse but warm covers to darkness outside his frosty prison cell. Must be night by now he thought before he took in the walls, bars, roof, and pretty much everything in the cell which was made of or at least covered in ice. Must be some method of torture he figured, making everything out of ice, but also a matter of convenience, as it was probably made by a waterbender in a matter of 15 minutes.

He sat up, just in time to catch the attention of Pakku, who, as it happened, was just coming to check up on him.

"Oh, you're actually alive still." the older man said boringly.

Zuko glared, but said nothing. He had a sort of "got captured" routine he would go into when he, well, got captured. He really could not even tell he did it actually, he would resort to not talking and devising a way out instinctively now, he had done it so many times before with the Earth Kingdom psychos.

"Well, it is about time you woke up. Now, tell me, exactly what happened between you and Yue?" Pakku stated coldly, it would seem he did not like dealing with brooding teenagers.

"Wh-what's that point?" Zuko coughed out in reply, the air here was really much colder than he was used to, much colder, and it was hard to breathe.

"Because depending on what you tell me, your life might be spared. As it stands now, the chieftain wants your head on a spike, but there may yet be a way to convince him of your innocence in the matter." Pakku replied, very subtly getting more infuriated by Zuko's apathetic attitude towards the direness of his situation.

But then, maybe he thought to escape, highly ridiculous, no one could escape this labyrinth under the frozen lake, not even a waterbender, which he was clearly not. Actually, he was not sure just what this boy was exactly at all. Pakku could well enough sense that this boy had a great deal of spirit, usually marking one as a bender, but he was assuredly not a waterbender, he seemed to aloof to be an earthbender, and he really had too much fight in him to be an airbender, so what was he?

There was also a strange hint of an accent which Pakku could not place, maybe he had spent time at the Western Air Temple? But would that not make him an airbender? He did not have the usual airbender tattoos though, nor did he have the personality either. He most definitely had a darker side to him than airbenders did, light, airy little imbeciles, most of them, they did not have a taste of real world strife and suffering, but this boy most assuredly did, maybe even a slight bit too much taste of it.

Pakku was not one to mince words or even act as though he had an emotion other than cold and apathetic, but that never meant he could not read body language and figure out most everyone's personality and past based on a few things they said. Still, he was having a hard time figuring out this boy.

"Have you nothing to say?" Pakku asked after he had waited for a response from Zuko for a moment and had finished his own internal monologue.

Zuko looked back over to Pakku, his golden eyes gleaming angrily, and replied as any crown prince of the Fire Nation would have, "I do not think it matters now what I would say, as it did not to your people then. If you really wish, you can try again in the morning, but the results will likely be the same as they are now."

Pakku was taken aback briefly by the very well spoken words, but also the faint accent the boy had became quite clear during this little speech, and Pakku could not place it, but he knew assuredly it was not from the monks in the Western Air Temple. Defeated, but not wanting to admit it though, and also not wanting to admit he had been slightly shocked, Pakku replied,

"Heh, it is morning, the sun just doesn't visit this place for another 6 months, and it never reaches these depths anyway."

And he walked away laughing hoarsely to himself leaving Zuko wide eyed and quite speechless. No sun? For more than one day? That was an almost certain death sentence, and it was a slow and painful death at that...

Aang, Sokka, Suki

After much deliberation, and the denial of Sokka's ridiculous plan which involved a giant lasso and saddle, anyway, it was decided that Aang should try to talk to the Hei Bai spirit and sort of, ask it to give back all the townsfolk and Toph. Albeit, Suki was just as skeptical that this plan would work as Sokka, but he just sort of did not want Aang's plan to work because his was not chosen, she just was fairly certain asking the huge monster nicely would not really sway it, but then Aang had all that Avatar elements and spirit world mumbo-jumbo, so maybe he had a chance. Maybe?

Either way, it would not hurt to try, so that was why they were here now, her and Sokka ready to come to Aang's rescue, should he need it. She was optimistic his plan would work, not stupid, so that was why she was in her full Kyoshi warrior gear with sword and fan ready, meanwhile Sokka had his trusty boomerang at the ready.

It was kinda scary, being in the deserted street all alone waiting for a huge monster to come attack. Actually, it was really scary, but what was scarier still was the fact that the plan might not succeed, and that would mean that the villagers and Toph would not be able to come back. He was the Avatar, so he was supposed to save everyone, right? Right?

But then, he had not been able to save Katara either from the dragons that attacked at the Northern Air Temple... and he had even run away when Gyatso told him he was the Avatar... And he was not able to stop the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom from killing everyone in the Fire Nation... So, basically the dragons would never have attacked and Katara would be safe, Toph too probably if he had not run away from his responsibility as the Avatar over a hundred years ago...

If he had been unsure of this plan before, he now felt the plan was utterly hopeless, he really was not cut out to be the Avatar, he had failed so much already, would he not just fail now? His self-depreciating internal monologue was interrupted when something started moving out from behind the treeline, but it was not the large monster they had seen just last night, in fact it seemed to be a person. Straining his eyes so he could figure out who it might be he stared. The person was familiar, but Sokka beat him to the identification shouting out from behind him, "Katara!"

Toph

"Would you like to hear a story?" the older man asked after a while.

"Uh, sure, but only because you were nice enough to give me tea, and it is actually decent tea, I'll listen to whatever story you wanna share, gramps." Toph replied, putting on a grumpy and spirited facade', she really was quite eager to hear a story, she missed when her mother used to read her to sleep.

"Well, okay, this happened a very long time ago, young lady, a very long time before I was born even."

"Okay, we get it, it's a freakin' old story." Toph interjected rudely, making the man laugh to himself saying something about her reminding him of his niece faintly.

"Yes, it is a very old story, but a true one. It is a love story-"

"Hold it! This had better not be mushy and stuff. All that kissy grossness I can do without, thank you."

"I promise, you will find this story most intriguing, as will your friends-"

"What do you know about my friends!"

"You do have some, yes? Well, I am sure that they will find this story interesting, but if you do not want to hear it..."

"...No, I wanna. I will stop interrupting. Please continue..."

Smiling broadly, not that Toph could see it, he continued, "Once upon a time, there was a girl. She was very beautiful, the most beautiful girl in the whole world, in fact."

"Was she a bender?" Toph asked rather sheepishly, not wanting to offend the man so that he discontinued his story, but wanting to know just the same. She hadn't offended him, as he continued,

"Why yes, she was. She was the first waterbender, Tui."

"Hey! Yue told me that Tui was the name of the moon, not the first waterbender, she doesn't know the name of the first waterbender, nobody does, so is this story fiction or what?"

"I assure you it is all true, and after I finish, I am confident that it will all make sense. Now, where was I...? Oh yes, beautiful Tui, she was graceful and kind, unlike her younger sister La, who was rough and aggressive, never to be controlled or calmed, she was quite scary, and also a waterbender, technically, the second waterbender since Tui was older.

Anyhow, it happened that one day, while beautiful Tui was walking she saw a young man, he was very handsome and very strong. Instead of talking to him though, Tui was quite shy, hiding every so often so none might see her, she hid and watched him from afar. The young man was doing some strange kind of movement she had never seen before, it was like a dance, but it was rigid and very hard, the movements did not flow like the dances she and her sister did. After a while, he stopped and left, leaving Tui there alone hiding still until she returned home as well.

The next day, Tui returned to the spot to see if the young man would return. Return he did, and she watched him do the same rigid movements and then left again. This continued for another few months, Tui hiding and watching him and then he and her both leaving at different times until finally one day, Tui wanted to help him, his dancing was not getting any better, and she just could not watch him any longer, she wanted to help him.

So, approaching the young man, she said,

'Hello there! I have been watching you practice, and I noticed that you are not very good at dancing, so I wanted to help you. My name is Tui.'

The young man just laughed in reply until finally he said,

'I know you have been watching, I saw you the first day, only I did not want to frighten you away, I was glad someone had taken interest in what I was doing, but I was not dancing, I was practicing. I call them katas, they help me focus. I am sorry I never said anything to you earlier, I am called Agni.'

And that was how they met, Tui and Agni."

"What happened after that?" Toph asked, her face all aglow with anticipation for the rest of the story, she was entirely enthralled now.

Zuko

The passage of time in this place was entirely undetectable. He could not tell how many days he had been down here or if he had been down here for more than one. Every once in a while a guard would come and ask if he was hungry, which he would usually just leave up to the guard's imagination by refusing to answer, it was Water Tribe food anyway, not really a fine delicacy, but even still he was not sure whether the guard asked because days were passing or that he had simply not said that yes, he was hungry. He had no idea.

He also could not rely on his sleep schedule to differentiate days, he felt rather weak without the sun, and he found himself passing out quite often, but he was not sure if it was a momentary loss of consciousness or a longer time frame. He had no way of telling at all, and he resolved that should he see Pakku again, he would at least remain civil enough to discover whether or not Yue was doing well, maybe, also figure out how long he had been down here, maybe.

He had unfortunately figured out that his firebending was entirely exhausted. No sunlight, no firebending, he had assumed as much, but still he also had hoped maybe Pakku had been lying too. Apparently not. He did not even have the power to blow steam out of his mouth, a very sad state for a firebender indeed. He really was unsure how or even if he could escape, such a terrible state he was in, but soon he would find his chance.

Pakku felt a strange heaviness in his chest at the thought of it, but why? It was their law, was it not? Would he not uphold the law? Yes, he would, but still he did not believe that the poor boy had done anything wrong. It also seemed that his condition had been getting steadily worse the past week he had been confined, even Yugoda was not sure what was wrong with him, which was stranger indeed. The boy had begun to sleep most all day now, to the point where they had just been making a soup of vegetables and healthy food and having one of the healers feed it to him while he was still unconscious, he never asked for food when he was awake, which was steadily becoming less and less everyday, so that had been their only option, he was skinny as a eel-hound anyway, young idiot.

As Pakku approached the Lee's (Zuko's) cell, he began to dread even more what it was he had to officiate, he was just glad that the actual task did not come down to him, he would have blatantly refused, he cared not of the consequences for that, he was the best waterbender in the Northern Water Tribe anyway, he almost dared Arnook to replace him. When had he become so rebellious to authority?

It mattered not, he had arrived at his destination and surprisingly enough, the boy was conscious for the moment, well, he may as well explain to him then, better to get it out of the way now.

"Your fate has been decided. I was unable to help you because you would not try to help yourself, but I guess you knew this would happen. Chieftain Arnook has decided you are to be executed-"

"I don't care." Zuko stated levelly back to Pakku. "All I want to know is if Yue is doing okay, is she healed? Is she awake yet?"

The sincerity of these questions was not lost on Pakku, who now firmly believed this boy had nothing to do with Yue's disappearance or her injuries for that matter, but it was as he had said, he was no longer able to help him. Pakku was about to speak when a guard suddenly ran over to him, almost into him, and stated, very out-of-breath,

"D-dragon at-attack."

"Which one?" Pakku asked, it was always the follow up question to when one was informed of a dragon attack, as it did actually matter, being that the red one was weaker than the blue one.

Pakku's eyes grew grave with horror as the guard responded,

"Both."

The guard hurried off back to his post as soon as he had said it, and Pakku was just starting to leave as well after he had given the severity of the attack a moments thought. The last time the dragons had attacked together, the entire city of Omashu had been wiped out, had their wise and formidable old king Bumi still been alive, the turnout may have been different, but he had passed due to his old age just faintly a year before. The Northern Water Tribe's capital was larger than Omashu, but still, could they survive? Hesitation would get him and the city nowhere, so he was about to leave when a hand grasped his parka sleeve.

Looking over, he noticed that the boy had come over to the bars of his cell and had reached through them and grasped his sleeve. What the boy was up to he had no idea, but he was in the middle of indignantly telling the boy to let him go when the boy spoke,

"You have to let me out."

"You said only a moment ago you did not care that you were going to die, but now you are afraid of a dragon attack? How quickly your false valor fades." Pakku spat back, trying to free his arm from the surprisingly steady grip.

"I have no false valor, nor do I have need to fear those two, I wanted to stop them."

The candid response took Pakku aback, and he could only say exactly what came into his head which was a rather ungraceful, "In La's name, how could you stop them?"

"Because, I am sort of like their master, I guess." Zuko really was not sure why they listened to him either, but he just knew they did.

"What! Let go of me, you have midnight sun madness, only there has not been a midnight sun yet!"

"No! I am telling you the truth!"

Finally managing to free his arm and regaining his composure, Pakku started to head off remarking,

"The only ones who could control the dragons were the firebenders, foolish boy."

"I AM THE LAST FIREBENDER!" Zuko finally burst, his anger at being ignored and his desperation to stop the dragons from attacking and possibly harming Yue getting the best of him.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki

It was an official tie between Aang and Sokka as to who got to Katara first, and both smothered her in a joint hug. Suki ran up behind by a few minutes, but still she managed to join the group hug.

"I am so happy you're alive, baby sis!" Sokka exclaimed happily with Momo, who had not been taken with Toph, chittering an assumed similar response, even though the silly little lemur creature had never really met Katara, only seen her briefly at the Northern Air Temple.

"Me too, Katara! I'm so happy to see you again!" Aang joined in jubilantly while Suki just nodded her own agreement to the statement.

Before Katara got a word in, however, the whole GAang was covered in drool as Appa licked them all in his own happiness.

"Um, I'm really glad all of you guys are okay too." Katara said, and it sounded slightly pained, but they were all just so happy to see her again, none of them pushed it.

"So, what were you doing Aang? Sitting out in the middle of the street like that? Is this town deserted?" Katara asked, quite confused by the whole thing really.

"Well, it's a long story but I was waiting for-" Aang began before being interrupted.

"That!" Sokka finished Aang's sentence, shouting and pointing to the large, black and white Hei Bai spirit monster.

A strange sense of familiarity struck her as she looked at Hei Bai, but all she said was,

"Why were you waiting for a panda bear?"

"It's not a panda! It's a big monster!" Sokka screeched in reply to what he thought was a really stupid question by Katara.

"No, actually, I think Katara's right, I think Hei Bai is a panda, or it's true form is a panda, I have to try to talk to it!" Aang said hurriedly, gliding over to the huge thing.

Placing his hand on Hei Bai's forehead, he tried his hardest to concentrate and make a connection with its spirit, how he was supposed to do that, he still was not quite sure, but he concentrated hard on Hei Bai, just as he had concentrated at the sacred pool at the Northern Water Tribe when he managed to contact Roku. It did not work though, as Hei Bai struck him and sent him flying off towards his friends while it continued to destroy the city.

Toph

"Well," the man began again after pouring himself and Toph another cup of tea, it had a jasmine scent, "After they met they became fast friends, Agni showing Tui some of the katas he had made up, and Tui showing Agni some of her graceful dancing moves. It was love. The two were inseparable.

But, there was one person who did not think this was a good thing at all, no she did not. It was La, Tui's younger sister. La had seen Agni practice too, and how he controlled fire, the opposite of her own element, and one she believed very dangerous.

Now, what La did was wrong, but I must state, that she only did it because she was concerned for her sister, Tui. It was wrong, but for the right reason, you understand?"

"Yes, I understand." Toph replied hurriedly, not wanting the story to slow down, she was really into it by now, and she was hoping that maybe there would be a fight soon too.

"Okay, well, La talked to all the earth spirits, there are a lot of them, anyway, she talked with them and finally managed to convince one of the greatest of their number, Hei Bai, the great panda spirit, that they should make a permanent place, a new place outside of the spirit realm where they lived. You see, La had a plan. She was going to trick Agni into this new world and separate the two forever, but, the air spirits heard, they hear everything.

The air spirits told Tui and Agni of La's plan. Agni was furious, he wanted to punish La, but Tui refused to let him. Instead she suggested they go to this other realm where they could be together forever and La would not be able to stop them. So they did. They went to the other realm, and decided to take on a different form, with Tui transforming into the beautiful and magnificent moon and Agni transformed into the awesome and mighty sun.

They were happy, but soon Agni could see loneliness in Tui, her beautiful luster starting to wane, so he threw fireballs into the sky, in an amazing and awe-inspiring gesture, and Tui lit up once more to see the stars that littered the sky. Again, Tui was happy. But, still she missed her sister, they had been so close. So one night, when Agni looked for Tui she was not there, he searched all the reaches of this new realm, but she was gone."

"Where did she go?" Toph asked, over eager to hear the man's reply.

"She had gone back to visit her sister, and asked if her sister would not reconsider joining them in the new realm. La, of course, said that she would, but that she had to say goodbye to the earth spirits which she had grown close to. Tui believed her."

"She wasn't saying goodbye to the earth spirits, was she?"

"No, she met again with Hei Bai and the other earth spirits and she convinced them to join her in this new realm. So they did, and they created a barrier between Agni and Tui, separating the sun and moon forever."

"That's a terrible story!" Toph said, indignant that she had let her time be wasted listening to such a sad tale.

"It's not over yet, I assure you. You must hear the ending before you decide if the story is terrible or not." the man said, she could hear the smile in his voice as he said it too, some mirth over her indignation surfacing in as controlled a manner as the man could possibly muster.

"So, after Tui and Agni were split apart, the air spirits decided that they had had enough of this quarrel. They went very far into the spirit world, so far, far enough to reach the only spirits whom they believed could set things right, the two oldest spirits. There are none left who remember their names, even Agni and Tui do not know anymore, but needless to say, the air spirits contacted them and told them all that had happened.

The ancient two just shook their heads in frustration at all who were involved in this, even Agni and Tui, and even though they had the power to undo all that had happened, they decided on a different approach. The two ancient ones traveled with the air spirits to the realm where all the rest were and there they bound all the spirits, the air spirits, the earth spirits, the water spirits La and Tui, and Agni, the fire spirit. They would permanently be linked to that realm, but still not be tied to all of its rules.

Then, the two utilized their powers to create life on the little world, animals and even people, and to every specific element, they granted a special creature, fire had dragons, air had air bison, earth had badger moles, and so forth. After that, with the last of their strength waning, the two charged all of the spirits to protect the people given to them on their lands, and also, that they would protect each other if need be from the people should they grow too ambitious.

Then the old spirits left, leaving the younger spirits to themselves, to guard and protect their people. Agni was the first to give his people protection, he gave them fire, but not only that, he divided his entire being up into the firebenders of the Fire Nation, so that every firebender has a part of his essence."

"But what if the firebender is a girl? Does that mean she is Agni and that Agni becomes a girl?"

"No, no. One does not become Agni by being a firebender. One simply has a piece of his essence. However, if all the essence of firebending is confined to a single person, that is another matter...

Anyhow, where was I? Ah yes, Agni divided his spirit up among his chosen people, and hearing this, La was convinced he mean to get revenge on her by having his people destroy her and Tui's, so she went to Tui and told her. Tui was terribly saddened to hear that Agni was, in essence, gone. He remained, but not as a whole, however, La would not let her sister have the same fate as Agni put upon himself.

Tui and La finally reached an agreement when Tui suggested that they take mortal forms and stay with their people while also granting their people a portion of their power. Soon after, the earth spirits decided to lend their people a portion of their power, however, they refused to become mortal they chose to simply be near enough to where they could watch over their people. The air spirits followed suit, giving their people the gift of air control, and since the air spirits could be everywhere at once, they did not need to become mortal to be close to their people, they are naturally close."

"Okay, so basically, what you told me is the origin of the world and the origin of bending?"

"Yes. That is correct."

"Why?"

"Because, I believe you needed to hear it. I believe you need to tell all of this to the Avatar, and I believe that this information is precisely the reason Hei Bai brought you here, so you could learn the truth. You see, Tui and La discussed the conflict between La and Agni many a time before La was convinced that Agni was not a threat and was actually good, but the conflict was never truly ended between them.

The Avatar was gifted with the powers of all the spirits in an attempt to united end the conflict, that every element might rest peacefully in one single human would be a sign that the others could all coexist together as well. This worked, until the advent of the hundred year war. That war pushed every nation to the breaking point, and eventually, the Fire Nation broke completely, due to the united effort of the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom.

But that was never what any of the spirits had wanted. So, La and Tui abandoned their sacred pool in the Northern Water Tribe, the earth spirits looked away as the dragons began to rampage through their land, and the air spirits faded into mystery, ashamed that their people had just idly sat by and allowed the destruction of an entire race.

All of this came to pass as a result of that terrible war, however, it does not have to be that way. The Avatar can set the balance right again, and he must, for the very bonds that tie the spirits to this realm are breaking, and they no longer care to stay. Without the spirits, you will have no bending, no world even, for they created it in the first place, so heed this warning, do you understand?"

"Yeah, I get it, by why not just tell all this to Aang himself, why tell me?"

"Because, I have no connection to the Avatar, I have not the power to contact him."

"But I don't have a connection to you either! So how can you chat it up with me?"

"The mask you have, that is very old and it was a gift I gave a very long time ago, that is why I have the slightest connection to you, why I can contact you. It looks as though your time here is at an end, however, goodbye and fare thee well. I am glad I got to warn you, now remember, tell the Avatar everything I have said." The man finished and Toph was poked by a furry, warm creature's huge paw.

"But, wait a minute, whatever happened to Tui and Agni? You said the story had a good ending, so what happened?" Toph asked quickly as the creature was taking her away, the back of her shirt caught in its big mouth.

"Ask your friends, Yue and Zuko, they will be able to tell you the rest, young one." he replied, chuckling to himself.

"Hey! How did you know their names, gramps!" Toph yelled back, but it was too late, he could not hear it. Suddenly the sweet smell of greenery rushed into her nose, and she realized she was back.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki

Being hit had not quite deterred Aang's resolve, but it did hamper it a touch, and he had begun to wonder if he was indeed taking the right approach. His full resolve was restored when Katara agreed that he could talk to Hei Bai, he just maybe needed more time to do it. So, along with Sokka and Suki, she concocted a plan to attack and distract Hei Bai, while Aang tried to communicate with it.

Sokka and Suki struck first, each one on either of its sides, and they struck hard. Suki planted her sword in the creature's foot, in an attempt to hold the creature in one place. Sokka utilized his boomerang and hit the creature squarely in one of its eyes, making it scream out in anger and pain. Katara was tenativley gathering water from a rain bucket to strike when she heard a voice inside her head saying,

"Why do you as well try to stop me? Our mandate was to protect eachother, we failed to protect Agni when we allowed the last firebender to die, and we almost lost Tui as well, which I sensed your righteous anger that night, so why have you again sided with the humans now?"

Katara was taken aback, was she the only one who had heard? No, Aang had and he replied,

"Who's anger? Hei Bai, you can't destroy this village! I am the Avatar, I am going to make everything right, you have to trust me and be patient!"

Hei Bai replied, "How can you expect to restore the balance when there is one piece of the four missing? Can you raise the dead Avatar?"

"The last firebender is still alive!" Katara shouted, and apparently she was the only one communicating verbally, instead of just through spirit telepathy or what have you.

This had seemed to work, however, in getting Hei Bai's attention, as it stopped struggling against Suki and Sokka and sort of teleported-flashed over to Katara.

"There is still one firebender left, Hei Bai. Aang can still restore everything, you just have to give us time, okay?" Katara finished, her voice sounding slightly saddened though as she thought about her own last encounter with Zuko and how she had fought him thinking him to be an evil spirit.

Hei Bai looked down thoughtfully, then disappeared, returning in its true panda form a moment later with Toph shouting, and the rest of the townspeople it had taken following along behind it as well.

Zuko

Pakku was quite taken aback by Zuko's sudden outburst and was very skeptical about its truth. However, it would explain why the boy was ill for no reason, the sun being cut off from a firebender was rumored to do that, it was also rumored to kill them too if it was a prolonged withdrawal... Unsure about any of it at all, Pakku asked,

"If you are Fire Nation, a firebender even, why would you help us?"

Sensing the disbelief in Pakku, Zuko decided to answer truthfully,

"I do not pretend I would do it for you, or your people, I would stop them only for Yue's Sake, that she might not get more injured or even killed by them."

"Yue is Water Tribe, so why her?" Pakku rebutted, making Zuko think for a moment before honestly replying,

"Because... I love her."

* * *

Author's Note: So, I am terribly sorry I did not update Saturday, the unforeseen circumstance of me being and idiot and leaving my laptop at my fiance's apartment, which is approximately 2 hours away (not a big difference, but I had no money for gas and a super busy schedule!) prevented me from doing so... But, as a result, you now have built up anticipation for this incredibly long chapter? :)

Anyhoo... Story, yeah, I laid out a big chunk of plotline, and yeah, I know, it was probably mostly information you knew already, well, sue me. (No, don't actually.) Anyway, as far as I know, the whole, "how the spirits created the world" thing is my own original concept, which you guys are totally free to steal, just, I'd like a little comment saying you did, and what story so I can see where you went with it, but anyhow, I hope it wasn't too boring, but I kinda had to state where my story's spirits and stuff background was, since I was taking an unconventional approach...

So, I guess... I'm done chatting for now. Thanks!


	17. Break 1: Timeline Clarification & Stuff

Break 1: Let's See How Far We've Come

* * *

So, I am getting some feedback that the timeline is hard to follow, which, truthfully, I kind of agree, so I am writing this little break as a "Last time on Of Sun and Moon the Last Firebender we learned that"... So, here goes:

1. I have played with the timeline a ton, so here is the basic timeline for you guys, laid out in what I hope is quite plain English:

Zuko's Timeline:

200 years ago, Sozin decides to use comet and try to kill all the airbenders, fails. 100 more years go by and Ozai is Firelord, he loses war, everyone in Fire Nation aside from Zuko is killed. (Comet reappears after firebenders die, and no Zuko is not awake to care. Comet has yet to come this year.) Zuko frozen in time. 4 years ago, Zuko who is 12, is discovered by archeologist and woken up, then captured by Dai Li agents. 3 years ago, Zuko who is 13, is branded with old Firebender brand on eye, getting his scar at 13 which is canon, sorta. 1 year ago, Zuko who is 15 escapes Dai Li and is on the run. Finds Toph who is 6 in my story, basically because I could.

Aang's Timeline:

Avatar Roku is imprisoned, not killed by Sozin (how is up to your imagination for the moment), so he dies later due to actual old age, making Aang born later, but not too much later. War is still waging, and Aang does not want to have to stop the war, as he feels it might go against what he was taught, but also it is a ton of pressure for a 12 year old kid, so he flies away on Appa and they are frozen like, 150 to 175 years ago? So, yeah, he's a ton older, but not at the same time, what's an extra 50 to 75 years of being in stasis?

Dragons' Timeline:

Okay, so after imprisoning Avatar Roku 200 years ago, Sozin declares all the dragons be hunted down. The dragons, while powerful, are much like the air bison, loyal and obedient to their particular benders, so basically, they are all tame, okay? So, they don't fight back about being killed, exactly, as I most recently explained in chapter 16, the dragons are the special pets of the firebenders, and are there to protect them, so they can't go killing them, it is not in their nature. BUT, thelast 2 dragons, Ran and Shaw, who Iroh did save still, do freak out 100 years ago as the Water Tribes and Earth Kingdom systematically destroy every remaining firebender, as no, they do not realize that Zuko is still alive. So, the dragons rampage started 100 years ago as Aang was still frozen and Zuko was too, make sense?

2. I changed the spirit world:

So, in the original cartoon, really only Aang can communicate with the peeps in the spirit world, well... sorta... Zhao actually states he had a vision in which he was supposed to kill the moon, which I always took to mean he got a message from some spirit world voodoo or whatever. Also, Iroh states that he went on a spiritual journey, which I always took to mean he talked to some spirit peeps to figure out what the meaning of life was, so that might explain to you guys where I was getting my whole "everyone talks to spirit peeps and all that goodness" idea from.

However, I did clarify with Iroh talking to Toph this last chapter (yes, Iroh talked to Toph, which he had a lovely chat with her in season 2 of the series, so it would have been a shame for them to not talk in this fic) that there has to be an existing connection for the spirits to talk to the living peeps, also, in the case of Toph, Hei Bai brought her to the spirit world, so that would be how Iroh could talk to her as well. Normally, the peeps in the spirit world can talk via dreams or if their live peep happens to be in the spirit world already somehow.

Aang, though, can talk to his spirit peeps, the previous Avatars and sometimes the special spirits, like Hei Bai and in the future La and Tui (sorry for the spoiler!) pretty much whenever he wants, he just has to meditate or Avatar State it out.

3. La and Tui:

Well, I changed La and Tui quite a bit, but first, yes, they did leave their sacred pool in the Northern Water Tribe 100 years ago (they were quite mad at their peeps for what they had done and were gonna let the dragons have some justice, but they are still bound to protect them too, so the Water Tribe peeps retain their bending, okay?), but they did not leave their mortal forms exactly, they just simply... changed them... which i really cannot say too much more about them currently, but feel free to speculate.

* * *

So, I hope that clears up a ton for you guys, and let me know if you need any more clarity, okay? I do promise another update this Saturday, and I am hoping to give you guys 2 as, no, I will not be updating on the 11th, I do not believe, I will be on vacation, sorry guys. Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to comment and rant about the highly confusing timeline, okay? If there is anything else you need clarified, please send me a rant, okay? Thanks.


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: I Woke Up With The Sun

* * *

Zuko

Rushing through the myriad canals and passageways that the capitol city was comprised of, Pakku having led him out of his prison, he made his way toward the rampant dragons. Apparently, they had been upset that he had not returned, they probably knew full well how firebenders tended to die in the frozen north without sunlight. It did not matter, however, why they were here, only that they were. Panting heavily, he realized he was exerting himself too much, and he hadn't even traveled too far into town. Oh, how he wished he had some sort of whistle that only dragons could hear! How helpful would that be? But he didn't, so he continued to run at break-neck speed, even though he could hardly breathe, the cold air hitting his lungs and giving him the sensation of drowning.

Finally, the air around him grew hot, the icy dwellings and walls around him were melted away, finally he had found them. He called out their names with all the strength left in his lungs and surprisingly enough, they heard him. Pakku, who had made his way towards where the dragons were attacking, breathed a slow sigh of relief and disbelief. "The boy was right... He is the last firebender..." he slowly breathed out, his comrades around him staring blankly with eyes wide as they heard him speak.

Zuko climbed onto Shaw, the blue dragon, and Ran followed after them. But then, a thought occurred to him, he had promised to leave and to stop the dragons' attack on the Northern Water Tribe, but he had not promised to leave Yue in their care any longer either... Debating this a moment, he then directed both dragons towards the healing hut where Yue was being treated, or at least had been treated. Pakku, noticed this calculated move and started cursing under his breath, however, he was fully aware there was little he could do besides that.

Zuko had been right in his assumption that Yue remained in Yagoda's healing hut, and unceremoniously whisked the still unconscious princess away astride his dragon, the other trailing behind him, leaving the Northern Tribe to rebuild its walls and also to try to understand what had happened to their princess and the dragon tamer.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph

Having been freed from the spirit world and the others having tamed Hei Bai's wrath, the whole GAang rested quite peacefully that night. However, the next morning a fight was breaking out.

"Hey, Sugar Queen, so where are my friends? Where are Zuko and Yue?" Toph inquired curtly, she had no love for Katara, especially not since she had returned to them without her friends, Yue and Zuko.

"I cannot be sure what happened to them..." Katara replied, sighing heavily with a remorseful look in her eyes, not that Toph could see that.

"Why not? What can you be sure of then?" Toph responded back, getting angrier by the second.

"Zuko disappeared after our struggle and as for Yue-" Katara was starting, but was interrupted by Toph.

"WHAT!? You attacked Zuko!? Why!?" Toph was screaming she was so mad.

"Yes, we fought. But me and Yue both thought he was an evil spirit, we both-" Again, Katara was interrupted.

"No! Yue would never do that! You're lying! You're lying!" Toph screeched, tears of anger and frustration pouring down her face.

"Look, You weren't there, you don't know-" Katara had started shouting back, but this time another person stopped her from finishing her sentence.

"Katara, Toph, what's going on? What's wrong?" Peacekeeper Aang interjected and then sorted out that they were fighting over the whereabouts of Zuko and Yue, Toph's friends.

"Guys, listen, I don't think a shouting match will solve any of our problems, so why don't we talk it out peaceably? Why doesn't Katara tell us all that happened, then we can figure out where to go from there, okay?"

"Fine." Toph agreed, only because she figured Twinkle Toes wouldn't shut up until he had made peace again.

"Um, okay, but can we discuss it while moving? I figure we need to be moving on soon, right?" Katara agreed, seemingly hesitantly.

Agreed and settled, the GAang packed up and loaded onto Appa's saddle, where they told Katara all about their adventures thus far, Aang even describing his swamp dream to Katara, which made her face flush red. Then Toph indignantly declared that she knew what they had been up to and that it was Katara's turn to share. With a heavy sigh, Katara began. She told them of her and Yue and Zuko aboard the ship headed north, and how Zuko had fallen overboard and all three of them had been adrift. She told them of how they had gotten to shore and her and Yue's adventures in the old house. Then she explained to them about the night when she and Zuko fought, how it had seemed to them that he was some sort of spirit. She told them of her and Yue coming to the mainland, and of their meeting of Jet.

After she described their meeting of Jet, Katara became slightly despondent, slightly apprehensive to continue on, but Sokka and Aang reassured her and she continued. She told of the dragons' attacking the camp and how she was overwhelmed, she explained that she had lost Yue at this time and knew no more of what had happened to her, she paused briefly, but then continued to tell them of the strange occurrence which also had happened, and how she was trapped within her own body as someone else took over control and utilized her waterbending to wreak terrible chaos on the members of the camp. She said lastly that she had blacked-out, and that she awoke on the shore not too far from the town where she had met back up with them.

Toph had sat back quietly listening to the tale, but the last part had struck her memory, and it reminded her of the old man's story about the spirits which she had been charged to tell Aang, but had forgotten in all the chaos. So now, she spoke up, and recounted the tale to Aang and the GAang, her mention of La striking a particular chord with Katara for some unknown reason.

"So, a spirit in the spirit world told you that story to tell to me, why? I don't understand what I am supposed to do with that information, I still don't know what La and Tui's mortal forms are..." Aang sighed depressingly.

"Well, but now you know why the earth spirits are so upset and such." Suki added, trying to be helpful.

"Yeah, but also, look at it this way, maybe the moral of the story is just as important as the players." Sokka started, "So, La and Tui are opposites of Agni, right? But in order for things to be right, all three have to live in harmony, actually even larger, all the elemental spirits have to live in harmony, that is what the two old and great spirits said, right? But then, when the nations destroyed one nation, they destroyed a part of that spirit, they killed one, in essence, so the balance is broken and now all the spirits are crazy because the rules that were set-up for them are gone, so they kinda don't know what to do, right? Am I right?"

Surprisingly enough, it seemed as though Sokka had hit the nail right on the head, leaving everyone speechless for a moment.

Yue, Zuko

When he woke up, he wasn't sure when he had passed out or become unconscious, but when he awoke the sun was shining warmly down upon him. He looked around, his eyes still hazy from sleep, and saw Yue still sleeping right next to him. This caused a startled jerk backward on his part, which resulted in him then noticing the dragon which was coiled around them both. It was Ran, the red dragon.

He sat for a moment wondering where they were when it dawned upon him exactly where they were, he had hardly been able to recognize the palace from its state of decay. The old Fire Nation palace was in a terrible state of degradation, but then it hadn't been used in over a hundred years... Thus the idea came to his mind to rebuild it.

Rounding down the old stairways that lead deep under the palace, he made his way with flame in hand for light. He knew that if he were to rebuild this place, he would have need of some of the old plans which he hoped still rested underneath in the labyrinth of tunnels and chambers hidden away beneath the palace. He reached the main chamber, and to his surprised found no only what he had hoped to find, but also something which he had expected to be gone, gold. It seemed that the entire royal treasury had been kept safe from the attacking forces by hiding it here in the royal "safehouse" chamber. What a lovely surprise indeed.

First, he essayed to finish the east wing of the palace, as it had the most stone work, which was still solid and did not need to be refurbished immediately, the wood work, however, was full of dry rot. Thus it was that he began to reconstruct his palace, burning out all the useless old wood and fitting new replica wooden furnishings within. He refitted the old screen doors which were mostly, if not entirely, decayed away, and by the end of one week had an entirely functional bedroom, complete with décor and linens. (The dragons procured furnishings and linens for him from the Western Air Temple, much to the dismay and disbelief of the monks there, Zuko refused to leave his semi-fortress of a palace.)

Here, in this room he had finished and refurbished he let Yue rest, she still had not awoken from her slumber, and this dismayed him greatly, but he was not sure what to do, the Water Tribe healers had been unable to heal her, so what more could anyone do? He made a broth from local herbs and slipped in into her mouth as best he could a few times a day. He really did not know what more to do than that. Ran seemed to sense his anxiety over the matter and stayed always by Yue's side, peering in through the window as she was quite too large to be inside the actual room, never leaving except to gather food for herself or when Zuko was with Yue.

The moon was softly shining into the quiet room when she opened her eyes. She breathed slowly for a moment, taking in her surroundings. She was on a large bed, covered with silky blankets and sheets. The air was warm, like the air was in the old Fire Nation when she was there, was she still there? What had happened? She couldn't remember exactly, she remembered being stabbed by Jet and seeing Zuko, oh Zuko... just the thought of him made her tear up, she wished so many things had been different between them, wished that it could have been different...

Looking about the room, she noted its distinct design of red and gold with ebony floors and wood work. Finally, looking over at the window, she saw a lounge and fast asleep on it was none other than Zuko. Slowly she stretched her feet out from under the covers, her abdomen still hurt deeply from her wounds. When she stood up out of the bed she noticed her clothing was that of the patients of the healing huts from her own Tribe, this she did not understand, maybe it was a dream? Even so, she wanted this one chance before she awoke, so she moved closer to where Zuko lay sleeping.

Reaching the side of the lounge where he was, she softly tousled his dark locks in her hand, gazing deep into his sleeping face with her light blue eyes. Pushing his hair off of his forehead, she stooped down and placed a gentle kiss upon his forehead, lingering there for just a moment. Feeling light headed, she returned to the bed and fell fast asleep once again.

* * *

Author's note: So, well, it hasn't been quite a year without updates, but highly close, right? I refuse to make anymore promises on updates, I give up on myself and my motivation, but if you are still with me, then I am glad. So, question, who wants some Zue type stuff? Who wants romance? I DO! So, guess what you will be getting? Hmmm... Romance is a hint. Also, I thought it just sucked too much to be Zuko, so I gave him a freak ton of gold, cash, money, moolah! It just wasn't fair that he had nothing all the time... :)


	19. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: But With You, I Feel Again

* * *

Yue, Zuko

Waking up with the first beams of daylight, Zuko left to go about his repairs, knowing nothing of Yue's waking in the midst of the night. He wanted to repair the entryway today, it had become slightly hazardous due to his traversing it often, and he wanted to fortify it heavily before it collapsed entirely. So, off he went to go about chopping beams to size, luckily for him, the dragons desired greatly to help his endeavor and were willing to slice trees down with their mighty claws, so all he need do is simply make smaller cuts and level out the boards. Building with dragons was highly effective, strangely enough.

It was about midday when she roused from her slumber, sitting up and stretching her arms out over her head. Looking around now, she could better appreciate the room's décor, and it was fine! The wooden accents coupled with the stonework was great, but the red, gold, and black accents all complemented each other marvelously, and it was quite a shock to see anything arranged in such a way. In her homeland they utilized blues of various shades along with browns and other neutrals, in the Earth Kingdom they used pale greens and ivory along with other pale muted colors, so this style was quite original to her. She was just admiring her surrounding and also noting that Zuko had left when her eyes fell to the window, at the window a giant green eye was peering back in at her. Her eyes frozen with terror, she did the one thing that seemed appropriate at the time, she screamed, loudly.

In the midst of cutting a fine edge off of one of the boards he was going to use as a floor, he heard a blood-curdling scream which caused him to jump and cut a slice into his finger, which he responded to with an uncouth curse. Rushing through the entryway up to the room where Yue was, he couldn't help but feel tense, yet relieved that she was finally awake. Entering the room with a hurried slide, Zuko saw Yue standing on the bed clutching the silky red blanket in one hand, lowered to the side.

"What?" he asked unamusedly, not seeing anything the matter.

"D-d-dr-dragon!" Yue stammered, using her free hand to point to Ran's eye as she peered into the window.

"Oh... right... sorry. Um, you don't have to worry about them anymore, uh, they listen to me. I guess they are kinda like my pets? Sorta?" Zuko remarked slowly, he himself still wasn't entirely sure why they obeyed him, but they did, he had forgotten that Yue wasn't aware of that though...

Yue simply stared at Zuko in disbelief for a good while after hearing that, her mind couldn't understand it quite. Zuko stared back, trying to be reassuring, but he soon became distracted by how little of Yue's body her outfit that she had gotten in Yagoda's healing hut actually covered... It had seemed like so much more when she wasn't conscious...

Suddenly, noticing Zuko's slightly fixed gaze, Yue herself realized how little of her was covered, her legs bare as well as her arms and her stomach unclothed as well, it was nearly the closest to naked one could get while still being "decent". With a quick jerk she pulled the red blanket over her and held it up in front of her with both hands.

Zuko, shaking his head and thoughts back to earth, sheepishly looked away, his face showing a slight red glow. "Um, I'll just let you get ready then..." And he left the room.

"But, where are my clothes?" Yue questioned blankly.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph

Flying about on Appa's back for a couple of days had led them no closer to any sort of clues. However, what Avatar Roku had said about the Earth Kingdom having answers had proved to be kinda true, they had found Katara and Toph had talked to that spirit world dude, so... that was helpful, right? Just when Aang was about to give up mentally and ask his friends for advice, Sokka half-jumped out of his seat and shouted, "Dragon Attack!"

Following the direction Sokka pointed, Aang and the others could see a huge billow of smoke rising from the ground, and what could it be but a dragon attack? So swooping lower with Appa, the GAang readied themselves for yet another match with the dragons.

Yue, Zuko

After searching through the armoire and rifling through a few drawers, Yue finally found some clothing to suit her. There was an assortment of clothing to choose from, to be sure, many different styles, but most were too large or men's clothing, but she was finally able to find some red silken robes in her size, along with a black sash to utilize as a belt, it wasn't her color or exact style choice, but it fit, and fit well.

While he had been utterly distracted by Yue's figure, he wasn't any longer and had once again noticed that he had sliced his finger open. Cursing slightly, he was about to turn around and go get some cloth from the room to bandage it, but then he remembered that Yue was changing. Now, to say that some part of him did not want to interrupt that, that would be untrue, a certain part of his brain was telling him to go back and look, but being a noble prince as he was, he ignored this impulse and went off to go find some other means of bandaging his bloody hand.

Now that she had found her outfit, she wanted some accessories to go with it, as most girls do. What she was mainly interested in was some hair ties, she wanted her hair pulled back, as it was it was billowing down her shoulders and back. *(her old hair ties and things had been taken when she was getting healed.) So she searched through the drawers of the vanity which was set-up against the wall opposite the doorway. It was unfortunate, but she managed to only find one hair tie, however, she did find a very pretty lotus comb shoved in the drawer as well, so she tied her hair back into a bun on the top of her head, letting her hair billow out behind her and stuck the comb in by her bun, and she was finished.

Having sliced his hand open already that morning, and having to just cauterize it due to the lack of medical supplies he had, he decided that he'd had enough of building for the moment. He was also trying to clear his mind of Yue, so he took his firebending stance and began going through kata after kata of firebending, starting with the easy ones and going to the progressively harder ones. He hadn't firebent in some time, because of the north pole, definitely, but also because he had slightly lost hope. The records that Jet had destroyed within the catacombs were the last remaining scrolls of firebending in existence, that he knew of, so he had slightly given up hope about mastering or learning anymore firebending.

Now, however, he practiced with all his soul, and it was a good feeling to feel the rush of power flowing through his body once again, he really had not done this for too long. He practiced for about an hour, the warm sun giving him an excuse to practice in only his pants, but that was also the classical training method for boys as well. Building a sheen of sweat on his body, he continued to practice and get more bold with his moves.

Finally finished with her preparations, Yue descended the half destroyed entryway and was headed out into the courtyard. She stopped, however, because she saw someone moving around out there, it was Zuko. She moved closer but stopped short of coming out all the way to be seen, she just sat and marveled at his precision and strength, she had never witnessed him practice his firebending before. Before she noticed it, she was intently staring at him, taking in his ever movement with her eyes, she felt like she has seen this before, but she knew she had never seen anyone practice firebending before. Suddenly, as she watched a figure cloaked in blazing armor replaced Zuko in the katas and preformed them with a glowing rainbow of color in the fire he bended. Shocked, Yue stepped back, but when she did, the floor creaked beneath her foot, letting Zuko finally realize someone was watching him.

Looking over towards where he had heard the floor creak, he noticed Yue there. It took him a good solid moment to realize it was Yue for she was decked out in Fire Nation style. (Well, western air temple style, but to the not so discerning eye, it was mostly identical.) He sighed as he looked at her, her hair pulled back into the typical bun of a Fire Nation lady, her robes flowing around her, accentuating her curves in all the right ways, and her eyes, those shown like sapphires, they were all the jewelry she needed. In this moment he realized, he didn't want to be alone anymore.

She had stopped when she saw Zuko looking over, and she had just realized that he had been practicing in only his pants. Even though he was only about 16 as she was, he had very acutely developed muscles in his chest and arms. His body also glistened in the sunlight due to his sweating from his practice, it was quite a sight to behold, especially for Yue who had scarcely seen a boy, no, man half naked before. But before she could react or even notice entirely, he was moving toward her.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph

As the GAang drew nearer, however, they noticed that the billowing cloud of smoke was not from some poor village which had been destroyed, but rather from a large smoke stack attached to some strange building. Landing on the ground, the crew disembarked from Appa, Toph going through her usual kiss the ground and say hallelujah routine, but the others just continued towards the strange structure.

"What could they be building in there?" Sokka questioned aloud, only to be answered by a stranger.

"Weapons." was the bitter response.

This new person was the same age or slightly older than Sokka, he had long brown hair, tanned skin, and his eyes were a typical Earth Kingdom hue. The GAang had been slightly startled by this newcomers sudden response, but after a moment, Suki spoke back to him.

"You sound offended by that, why?" She asked, quite curious about this youth's stance on weaponry, she, after all, had a sword, a fan, and armor to boot.

"Weapons are for killing, for murder! Why should I be proud that our entire town is tied to the death of others?" The youth spat back violently.

"Hey, hold up, weapons aren't solely just to kill people, for instance my boomerang and I have seen many sticky situations, but we didn't kill anybody! I use my boomerang to protect my friends!" Sokka declared vehemently.

"I bet you still hurt people with it though!" the youth retorted back, getting angrier by the second.

Aang and Katara stepped in before it became an entire brawl between Sokka and Suki versus their new acquaintance.

"Hey, guys, no need to fight, that doesn't prove either point." Aang stated fervently.

"Yeah, what's more, I think both sides are right! Weapons are for hurting others, but sometimes when others are out to hurt you or your friends, sometimes you have to defend yourself and others with a weapon." Katara added wisely.

"Not if you have bending!" was the reply back.

"Hey, not everybody can bend, jerkface!" was Sokka's retort.

Unfortunately, the bickering continued, despite Katara and Aang trying to intervene and settle the dispute. Finally, Toph had grown tired of listening and chatting with Momo and Appa, so with a swift stretch of her leg, she sent a earth ripple straight at the newcomer. This he deftly countered with a swift jerk of his own leg and hands, sending the ripple past him without hitting him. Next, he turned and stamped a boulder into the air, sending it hurtling towards Toph, who simply waved her hands and dust it became. Distracted by her maneuver, the youth did not notice the ripple coming back towards him from behind and soon lost his footing, this was all the advantage that Toph needed, she struck her right foot out hard, sending him flying through the air with rock arch from underneath him, next she pushed both hands forward, then pulled them back and the youth landed in a mess of quicksand, up to his neck.

"You, you're wrong. Your bending didn't save you one bit. Maybe you should try out a weapon, because your bending sucks." Toph huffed as she walked away towards Sokka. She just couldn't stand the bickering anymore, and frankly, whichever side Snoozles took was the one she'd have sided with, she had a slight childish crush on the older boy, as most young children do, developing "boyfriends" or "girlfriends" out of youths much their senior.

"Um, well, now that everybody's calm... Uh, don't mind Toph, she's kinda rude." Katara stated, receiving a glare from Toph.

"Yeah... So... What's your name? I'm Aang!" Aang stated, trying to break the tension with cheeriness.

"Haru..." the youth said lamely, as he freed himself from the ground. He was obviously highly embarrassed that a mere 6 year old beat him.

"So, Haru, why do you hate weapons so much, really?" Katara inquired, her noseyness getting the best of her.

"Just as I said, they are used to hurt people, and I hate them because of it. Nobody in this village seems to understand that though... Everyone is fine with using our coal mines to heat the forge in there and construct swords, arrows, spears, you name it, they build everything in there. They have been doing it for over two hundred years, ever since the 100 year war, but they continued to when the dragons attacked. It isn't right, making weapons..." He told them.

"But isn't that the town's economy?" Suki questioned, raising her left brow.

"Yes... but that doesn't make it right!" Haru declared.

"So, you just want to ruin your town's economy, is that it?" Sokka inquired, he still hadn't given up his fighting spirit.

"No, with the wealth of coal we have here, we could export it and that would be an ample solution to the problem." Haru declared righteously.

"...but who would buy it? More forgeries, more people crafting weapons, that is the industry that needs coal the most..." Katara added lamely, trying her hardest to take Haru's side, but considerably failing.

Haru was visibly saddened by Katara's wisdom and took his leave of the group, heading off in the direction of town.

Yue, Zuko

Slowly he approached her as though she were a mirage, a spirit, who would disappear if one got too close. Steadily he drew nearer, until he was standing right before her, close enough to touch. There he stood, still staring down into her eyes, still unsure if she was real or if he was having some strange daydream.

Her face flushed red as her heart beat faster. She had never noticed the disparity between their heights before, he was a whole head taller than her, and his shoulders, how broad they were in comparison with her small frame. The muscles in his arms seemed so much more in tune than she had ever imagined, and timidly, she reached her hand out to touch his arm, feeling the musculature beneath his skin, slick with sweat.

"You look beautiful in that." he finally managed to remark, the first to break the silence, proving to them both that this moment was real.

"Oh, I..." Yue started, but failed to finish her "thank-you" due to her blushing. She slid her head downward looking off to the side.

Slowly, gently a coarse, calloused hand lifted her cheek back up and she was looking into his eyes again. Her hand which was not touching his arm moved seemingly of its own accord to cover his hand, still touching her cheek. She was awed by the coarseness and callousness of his hand and she thought of all the struggle he had been through, and so much she did not know of yet. This thought brought frail tears to her eyes, and she squinted not to release them onto her cheeks.

Through her teary eyes she saw something which she had not seen before, Zuko smiled. Not a grimace, not a frown, a smile that made her heart flutter and her face feel hot with flushing. Then it happened, stooping, he bent over and kissed her fully on the lips. Feeling a rush of passion swell through her, she kissed him back, rising up onto her tippy-toes, he was so much taller than her.

After kissing each other for a moment or two, Zuko pulled his hand away from Yue's face, and grabbing her by the waist lifted her into the air. Even still, Yue and he remained passionately kissing each other, after a moment or so he sat her down upon the stone pediment of one of the former wooden columns that had been removed with the help of the dragons as it was rotted out. There she sat and he stood still impassioned, she running her fingers gently through his hair, he leaning in closer to her. Then, he stopped kissing her lips and started slowly kissing down her neck, until when he was about halfway down, she pushed him back with sudden force.

"Zuko, I can't... I can't do this." she said fraily as tears welled up into her eyes once more, but this time for a far different reason.

"Uh, what? What's wrong?" was the only response he could muster, so taken aback he was.

"I'm engaged... To another man." She said, tears falling from her eyes, as she shifted the collar of her robe over to reveal the only thing about her apparel that marked her as Water Tribe, an engagement necklace.

Zuko sat dazed for a moment, trying and failing to understand Yue's engagement. "What? Why?" he pondered stupidly.

"My father arranged it, he is the chieftain of the Northern Water Tribe, and I am princess, so I was betrothed long before I even understood the meaning of the word..." she explained, more tears falling from her eyes.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph

"Well, that does kinda suck for the guy..." Sokka finally relented. "I mean, the weapons I have were all made by myself or the people of our village, so I guess we kinda have some clarity on how they are used, but exporting weapons to who knows who is kinda a gamble, I guess I can kinda see the kid's point."

"That's true, all of the Kyoshi warriors make their own weapons for personal use." Suki added reflectively.

"Hmmm... I sure wish there was a way that the town could keep its economy without having to build weapons... Why does the Earth Kingdom need so many weapons anyway?" Aang mused to himself.

"Maybe they could blow bubbles, that's about all I can think of." Toph added sarcasticly.

"Hey, why not? That's a great idea, Toph!" Katara chirped enthusiastically, to the confusion of everyone else. "Why don't they utilize the fire from the coal burning to blow glass? It's super pretty and not a ton of people do it."

"I think that is way too new-fangled for backwoods people like this." Sokka dismissed.

"Well, it couldn't hurt to try, right?" Aang agreed with Katara, "Let's ask Haru and see what he thinks!"

So off they went to go and find Haru and discuss this new idea with him.

Yue, Zuko

"So," Zuko began after a moment of silence had taken over and allowed him to collect his thoughts, "You don't love this guy you are engaged to, right?"

"No, I cannot stand him, he is a loathsome idiot who thinks only of the increase in his position and status after he marries me, he cares perhaps less for me than I for him." She declared bitterly.

"And, it is according to your Water Tribe custom that you marry him?" Zuko continued.

"Only the Northern Tribe's customs, although, from what Katara said, the Northern Tribe is the only one left..." Yue remarked absently, her mind traveling back to her homeland and their laws and customs.

"Well, you are here now," He continued to say as he reached up and removed the necklace from around her neck, "So you no longer have to marry that guy."

"But if I don't marry it will bring shame and dishonor upon my father, and it is not proper, since I am 16 and am now marrying age. I would never be able to go back and see him, and I miss my homeland so..." She said sadly.

"So, you are doomed to marry beneath you for the sake of your family's honor? Forced into a life despised all because of some old agreement your father made?" Zuko questioned forcefully, clutching the hated necklace in his palm.

"Well, yes, I am marrying 'beneath my class' I suppose, but the Earth Kingdom has no princes available, only stuffy old nobles too keen on Earth Kingdom nobility to part with their sons..." Yue comment, half to herself, half aloud.

"What about a Fire Nation prince? No, wait, I suppose it is Firelord now, since I was crown prince." Zuko quizzed seriously, his eyes glowed with his sincerity.

"Wh-what?" Yue questioned back, she had no idea he was nobility, least of all the crown prince of the Fire Nation, and how could he be, he would have been over 100 years old!

"Right..." Zuko sighed, taking a step backward, "I suppose nobody would go for that proposal, who wants anything to do with a firebender anyway? For a moment I had forgotten that firebending was so despised, and firebenders so hated..."

"No! I love you!" Yue had shouted the words without even thinking. "With my father's help we could rebuild your nation, we could restore the Fire Nation as a country! A diplomatic union like that would work..." she finished, more to herself than anyone else.

Stepping back towards her, he asked once more, "So, will you marry me then?"

Tears of happiness and joy rushed into her sparkling blue eyes and she said, "Yes, yes, yes! Of course!"

He threw the necklace along with a fireball backwards behind him, utterly destroying the hand-carved object, and attempted to carry on where they had left off, kissing Yue's neckline, but she was a mass of chatter at the moment, talking about how she had to go talk to her father, what she would wear, how many preparations had to be made and such, all the girlish delights of getting married. Well, he finally gave up and stood aside, letting her flutter off to whatever unknown things she had decided she needed to prepare. She did know that Fire Nation engagements lasted at least two years, right?

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph

Finding Haru had proved to be slightly difficult, but finally they caught up to him inside of a shop in town.

"Hey, Haru! I think we may have found a solution to your town's problem!" Katara started, possibly much louder than she had originally intended.

"What? Haru! What is this girl talking about? Have you been complaining about the manufacturing again? You know that is in direct opposition to the council's wishes! Stop making trouble for our family!" The older woman behind the counter scolded in a flurry of words.

"Yes, mom." Haru stated obediently, sending a sideways look over at Katara, who was biting her lip uncomfortably, she hadn't meant to get him into trouble.

Feeling the awkward tension in the room, the GAang left. After exploring the shops in town for a while, they decided it might be best to leave, even though Katara was adamant they should stay and solve the issue in this town with Haru, but she was a bit of a bleeding heart anyway as Toph would have said. Just outside the town, they found themselves being stopped by an earthen wall, which Toph easily dismissed, but the bender who had caused its sudden appearance caught their attention then. It was Haru, he had come o meet with them in secret he explained.

"Okay, hold it right there, buddy," Sokka started rudely, "If you want our help, you have to explain everything that is going on here, okay? 'Cause I'm pretty sure we are a few miles behind in that area."

"Okay..." he conceded. After which he told them about how his town had manufactured weapons since the 100 year war, but that it was never their decision to build them in the first place, it was forced onto the town because of the extensive coal mines they had. A faction of the Earth Kingdom who was not under control of the Earth King had forced them into building and working the forge, saying it was their patriotic duty so they complied, after all, back then who wouldn't have done what was necessary for their country?

So they had complied those 100 years, but after the end of the war, the same faction decreed that they were not allowed to discontinue forging weaponry. They declared that the town would be officially declared traitorous and malicious towards the Earth Kingdom if they stopped, so the town stayed its course of weaponry forging, for its own safety. The townsfolk referred to them as the council and refused to disobey their orders even though most everyone in town was a pacifist and believed that weapons would only cause more strife.

"Wow, well, that's tough..." Aang said trying to think of more to say.

"Bluff." Sokka commented boringly. "Total bluff, the Earth King like, knows everything going on in his country, he's kinda the most powerful person in the Earth Kingdom, and it's huge! So how could some secret faction really exist like you say? Also, even if they did, how could they rat you out to the Earth King without revealing that they exist?"

"Uh..." was all Haru could manage, it did relatively make sense, what Sokka had said, although he did know that the council existed, he had seen some of their people come into town when his father had first spoken out against the forge.

"I have a plan," Katara said slyly, "Gather all the townsfolk so everyone can hear it at once."

So, off they all went asking the townsfolk to join together in the town square, well, Toph didn't ask a single person, but she did tag along with Sokka. After they had everyone gathered, Katara constructed a huge ice pediment for her to stand on so that all the people might see and hear her, thus she began.

"200 years ago, your ancestors took up the task of weapon forging for their country during a time of great war, but the war ended 100 years ago, the Avatar has returned to defend against wars, so why do you still continue to forge that which you detest? Why are you bowing down to the will of some phantom? Aren't you earthbenders? Don't you have your Earth Kingdom pride? Why let an unseen foe force your hand? You have the power to change your lives, the power to take back the freedom which has been denied to you for 200 years, take your right, take your pride, hold your heads high and be proud of yourselves once more, who's with me?" She finished raising her fist into the sky.

For several moments nobody said a word, the townsfolk refusing to look into Katara's eyes. Her speech had been bold and thought provoking, but it seemed these people were too used to the chains that bound them to realize that the chains were only being kept on by their own effort. Katara's shoulders slumped along with her fist which she had raised high in rebellion, there seemed to be no hope for these people. But, suddenly, one of the crowd spoke, it was Haru, he declared that he would have his freedom and pride again. After Haru, another man stepped forth, it was Haru's father, he declared that he was no longer afraid of a faceless organization. More and more followed them until the whole town was in revolution towards their invisible captors. They had done it! They had freed this town from oppression, even if it was a somewhat self-inflicted oppression.

Later, the GAang was invited to stay with Haru and his family, so they did. The dinner table that night was filled with ideas on how they could utilize the forge, there was talk of making beams for jail cells to hold earthbending prisoners, metal pots and cookware, to even glassblowing as Katara had suggested. It was a delightful thing to see the villagers and Haru so happy, and Katara was quite proud of herself as well. Later, just before Katara retreated to her bed for some well-deserved sleep, Haru stopped her and thanked her for all that she had done and for giving his own family joy again. Thus went Katara to slumberland quite happy with herself.

The next morning a messenger came up to Haru's house, directed by the villagers. He was obviously a Water Tribe man who was seeking Avatar Aang, so thus they had directed him. Finding Aang, he handed him a message from Master Pakku which read,

"Avatar Aang, I have seen someone whom you may be highly interested to meet, a firebender. He was here, but left following an attack on our city by both of the dragons, which he alone stopped, simply by calling their names. It is apparent he is their master, therefore it is urgent you find this boy. No one outside the Northern Water Tribe is to be told of this, I fear there are still some within the Earth Kingdom who would continue the war of 100 years ago against firebenders. Please make all due haste and come to the Northern Water Tribe, I will be waiting."

Aang read silently to himself, then thanked the messenger and told him to give Master Pakku his regards. Then he spoke to the others,

"Well, I'm sorry to have to leave on such short notice, but it seems I am needed elsewhere, so we must be going."

The rest of the GAang was slightly confused by the sudden need to leave, but they complied and waited for Aang to explain later, which he did while they rode north on Appa. He read the letter back to them aloud this time and the first reaction came from Toph, "Zuko! He's okay!"

Yue, Zuko

About an hour after she had run off upstairs, Zuko heard some loud crashing in the bedroom, so he quickly ascended the remaining stairs and went to make sure she hadn't killed herself or some such. Entering the room, he saw it was a mess of clothing littered all about, with robes and sashes flung in every direction, it was an entire wreck. Then he noticed what the loud crashing sound had been, Yue was desperately struggling with a huge traveler's chest, trying to open it.

"What in Agni's name are you doing?" He inquired, waving his hand in front of himself slightly angrily.

"Well, I'm trying to get it open, but it won't budge." She replied weakly, hoping to gain some support and help from Zuko.

"Why? There's nothing in it." he replied dumbly, not understanding her motivation for wanting it open.

"Well, yeah, that's why I need it open to put stuff in it." She replied, a tad more forceful than she had been aiming to be.

"What are you going to put in it? ...Wait, are you leaving? Why? What's wrong now?" Zuko questioned with an exasperated air.

"Yes, I'm leaving, because I need to go see my father at the Northern Water Tribe, which might take quite some time, so I wanted to pack some extra clothing in this case, but it won't open, so could you please open it? And nothing's wrong, why would it be?" She replied impatiently, but growing quizzical on the last part.

"Wait, I'm still confused, what?" he remarked after a moment of thought.

"I ran away from home so I wouldn't have to uphold my duty and marry that idiot, however, you proposed to me, so now I must go back and convince my father or we will never be able to be married, you see, according to our customs in the Northern Water Tribe the father must be present to give away the daughter at the wedding ceremony, otherwise it isn't legal. And I was wrong to run away and I want to ask my father for forgiveness and my people for abandoning them as well. I want to do this right, Zuko, so will you come with me?" She spoke patiently, her eyes all a glow.

"No." Zuko replied firmly which sent Yue into tears and she turned around not facing him, head in her hands sobbing.

"Um, look, hey," he began, feeling awful for having sent her into a crying fit, but also feeling exasperated that a single word had sent her off the deep end, "It's just that I can't go."

"Why not?" She sobbed out in response.

"Um, well, I'll die..." he replied flatly, looking to the side.

"What!?" she said spinning around to face him once more.

"Well, after Jet stabbed you, I took you there briefly to get you healed, I don't know the first thing about first aide and I didn't know where else to go, so Ran flew us near there, not totally there, I didn't want to cause a scene, but anyway after I got you to the healer woman, they put me in prison for kidnapping you or some such (which makes more since now that you told me you are a princess, but anyway), and while I was there this grumpy old dude told me that there was no sunlight up there for 6 months, which is like a painful death for a firebender, but I guess I am the only one who would know that..." He trailed off into his own thoughts for a moment before hearing Yue's reply.

"They think you kidnapped me?" She questioned, amazed.

"Yeah, so it seemed." he shrugged.

"Maybe it would be best for me to go see my father and my people by myself then, besides I don't want you to suffer any." She suggested calmly, it had seemed her crying fit was over.

"Yeah, okay, whatever," Zuko sighed, opening the chest which Yue had been struggling with. "So how long will you be gone?"

"I'm not sure, maybe 2 weeks?" she mused, while she busied herself with packing her newly acquired wardrobe.

"Okay, well, I guess me and the dragons can drop you off close to the city and then we'll see you in 2 weeks after that." He forced himself to sound like he didn't care and walked off down the hall to let her do her packing and such alone and also to ready the dragons for a brief venture to the north pole area.

* * *

Author's note: Woot! Two chapters in one week! Huzzah! This one is kinda long too, whew. Anyhow, so, a few housekeeping items here:

So, 1. I wanted Zuko to start living in the Fire Nation and where else but his palace, but like 100 years of neglect would have made it like, totally decrepit, I am no fool. However, the stone foundation, which I am totally going on a limb and assuming was stable and not shoddy work wold still be pretty solid, as would the stone walls and such, really only all the furniture and woodwork would be gross, so yeah, I had him start repairing it, where did he get this knowledge, well, he has the original plans and also his skills and architecture knowledge come from somewhere, if it bothers me too much I will explain it later.

Anyhow, 2. I wanted to add Haru into this fic, because his little story is kinda inspirational and he has slight purpose later in the series, so I wanted him to be a player that I could deal with later, but the problem I had was that... his town had no problem. No Fire Nation means no earthbenders being kidnapped and no problems, so I kinda worked my way around that, although I did have to alter Haru's personality a bit, he was always against the flow, so I just pushed it further. So, I still had Katara give her speech and all that and the townspeople save themselves and all that, which we will see later how well that worked out, but anyhow, so I added Haru in, please feel free to tell me whether I did a good job of it.

Lastly, 3. I have had some comments in the past about not keeping Yue canon personality wise, so I just wanted to state that I think she is pretty canon on personality in this chapter, yeah, she spazzes out and throws a crying fit, but she did that crap to Sokka in the series, so sorry but she is a spaz when it comes to dealing with love and her feelings about that.

Also, on a side note, please tell me how you think that romance stuff worked. So, that's all I got, thanks!


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Do You Still Do As You're Told?

* * *

Yue

Arriving in her homeland again was actually much harder than she had thought, and she wondered how Zuko had done it while carrying her unconscious body. Her shoes that she had gotten from Zuko's weird assortment of clothing he'd gathered were too thin and every step was painful from the cold and frost. Even though she had wrapped herself up in 3 or 4 layers of robes, the northern wind still blew right through her, freezing her down to her core, it would be a miracle if she ever made it to the gate, but make it she did.

The welcoming committee that she received was not in the least friendly until the recognized her, then they led her into the city post haste. Entering past the main gate she saw a very familiar face, her father's number one adviser, Pakku, master of waterbending.

"Master Pakku!" She called out in a cheery tone, hugging the old man happily, which he pretended to detest, but he too had missed the fair princess's radiant smile.

"By what fortune are you back here, princess?" He questioned sternly, as was his manner.

"Can we discuss that matter in private, please?" She answered politely and Pakku agreed, seeing all the prying eyes and ears that were gathering about them.

So off they went to the palace where Pakku had his dwelling as well. There in the den of Pakku's living space did Yue tell Pakku everything, well most everything, she explained that that she had met Zuko in the Earth Kingdom along with Toph, the little girl he had taken in after her family had died. She explained how the dragon had attacked at the Northern Air Temple and how she, Zuko and a girl named Katara had ended up adrift in the ocean after attempting to head to here.

She continued and told about how they discovered Zuko to be a firebender and how he left, then she spoke of Jet, which when she spoke of, she numbly held her abdomen for pain still stung her every once in a while where she had been stabbed, Pakku took notice but continued to silently listen while wishing harm on the Earth Kingdom felon known as Jet.

She then explained that she didn't know what had happened after she passed out after Jet had stabbed her, but she did mention that Zuko had told her she had been brought here by him, to which Pakku nodded his head and stated was true but urged her to continue, his tale could wait a bit. So she finished by telling Pakku that Zuko had proposed to her, it was then that Pakku took note of her missing necklace.

"Well, La and Tui, you've just taken matters into your own hands, haven't you? You had best speak to your father immediately on this matter, I fear I have no say, for if I did you would never have been betrothed to that imbecile." Pakku spoke dryly, but he still managed to extract a smile from Yue. "Come, I shall go with you." And they headed off toward the Chief's quarters.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph

Flying on Appa, the GAang made it back to the north with ease and haste. Katara's eyes were all aglow as she took in for the first time the massive city with its walls of ice and its myriad of watery canals. Landing, Aang asked one of the guards to send for Master Pakku, for it was he who had summoned them here. Off the guard went, and within a few moments Pakku was walking towards them, he seemed to have a strange smirk on his face which Sokka immediately questioned out loud,

"Hey, what's with the creepy smile?"

"Oh, nothing, just that everything seems to working out exactly right at the moment, come with me, I believe there is someone here you should meet, but I believe some of you already know." He replied and started back towards the direction he came, giving them no option but to follow him, so they all did.

Yue

However, as fate would have it, a messenger came for Pakku seeking his immediate attention to some matter, so with a hint of remorse he left, leaving Yue alone to face her father. Swallowing hard, she pushed aside the tanned hide covering and entered into her old dwelling. As soon as she entered, he father looked up from his fire placed in the center of the room in a stone pit he had obtained through trade with the Earth Kingdom. The furnishings were all still the same as when she'd left, the den still covered mostly in pelts and furs with the center fire pit giving a warm glow to the room. Slowly, sheepishly, she took the seat opposite her father and sat quietly until at last he broke the silence.

"I thought we'd lost you." He said, hanging his head low, looking into the fire.

"There were times when I thought you would..." She responded back quietly.

"Were you kidnapped by that boy? The one who brought you back to us only to take you away again?" He questioned earnestly.

"No. Zuko didn't kidnapped me, I always traveled with him of my own accord after I ran away from here." she replied shamefully hanging her head.

"Yue, my daughter, why?" her father asked painfully.

"You should know full well, if you did not, then I am sure Pakku has made you quite aware of why I did so." She replied, slight anger in her tone, but still she kept her tone decently level.

"Your mother and I had an arranged marriage, we grew to love each other, why could you not try to do the same?" He tried to convince her still.

"What if that person sees you only as a trophy, only as a more prominent position, what if he is only power hungry?" she waned to continue, but she also meant her father no disrespect either, so she calmed herself down and quietly awaited his response.

"Yue, I too know of Hahn's ambition, but ambition is a good thing, my dear, it means he will forever strive to better both of your lives." Arnook replied, thinking he had won yet another argument with his daughter over the arranged marriage.

"Not mine." she half-whispered.

"What was that?" Arnook questioned, he did not appreciate under the breath comments very much.

"I said, 'Not mine.' That is what I said. Were no different to him if any other daughter in the tribe were his for the same amount of fame, he cares not for me other than that you are my father, upon your death when he is made chief for having married into your line, he will replace me for another girl of status from the Earth Kingdom, mark my words, father!" She burst defiantly, then bowed her head in reverence to her father as she was supposed to do.

His daughter's vehement response took Arnook back a moment, she had never been like this, what in La's name had traveling with that boy done to her? That boy... done to her...? Suddenly a rage flushed full in the chieftain's face as he tried to control his temper while asking her what had happened between her and that mysterious boy.

"No, no, we didn't do anything, we had separate tents and we didn't travel together alone until just recently when we were back in the Fire Nation!" She exclaimed waving her hands in frantic motion to assure her father he had assumed the absolute furthest thing from the truth, she knew full well that her father would have killed Zuko had any such thing as _**that**_ happened.

"You were in the Fire Nation!? Yue, what were you thinking? You know that place is cursed least of all, what of the dragons?" Arnook's nerves were surely in for it today.

"No, father, I never exactly went of my own accord, but it isn't cursed, I never once saw a spirit there, not once! And the dragons are no longer to be feared, Zuko has mastery over them. How do you suppose I managed to get back here? Surely you heard about how he made both dragons retreat from here when he left taking me with him, surely you heard." Yue expounded, trying to get her father to see some of the desirable aspects to potentially having Zuko as a son-in-law before she explained that Zuko had asked for her hand in marriage.

"...are you saying you rode on a dragon?" Arnook asked, sounding like an incredulous tutor quizzing a pupil.

"Yes, part way here, he didn't want to frighten the civilians by bringing me all the way here, I rode behind him though, it seems like they don't really like me, only him." She explained dutifully.

By this time it had finally dawned on Arnook that something was amiss, her very foreign clothing had been distracting for a time, but now he had noticed that she no longer wore her engagement necklace, so just why had she come back if she had run off of her own free will? This he wondered, so he began,

"So then, my daughter, why did you come back? What would make you come home to the place that you ran from on your own will? Tell me, does it have anything to do with your betrothal necklace being gone?"

As her face flushed slightly pink, he knew he had hit the mark. But patiently, he waited for her reply.

"I came back to speak to you, to try to explain why I will not marry Hahn..." She said firmly, but meekly.

"If not Hahn, then who? Who else here would you have, since it matters not what I would wish any longer apparently. None? Right, all here are not worthy as I have already examined and figured out for myself, to the Earth Kingdom then you would look? Their nobility is nothing more than greed and distrust, you know that." he finished, but instead of defeat on her face, he saw something else, a quiet composure.

"What about the Fire Nation? What of their crown prince now Firelord by birthright? What of him?" she asked meekly, her calmness and security taking her father aback as well as her words.

"Zuko asked me to marry him, and he was the last crown prince of the Fire Nation, I am sure there are records, even if you do not believe that story, he is the last firebender which makes him the only one who can stop the dragons in their rampages, this city has seen that personally, so what better ally to have than that?" her composure and smooth delivery struck a chord with her father, whose only question in reply was,

"Do you love him?"

"Yes." she answered humbly.

"I see... tell them to send for Pakku, I must discuss some things with him, alone." He said, and she dismissed herself telling a servant to send for Pakku.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph, Yue

As the troupe followed after Pakku, the saw a figure dressed in red approaching them, stomping heavily in boots that were a few sizes too large. As the person drew closer, Katara began to recognize who it was and exclaimed, "Yue!"

After hearing her name called, Yue ran over and noticing Toph among the group of people ran over and caught the out of sorts earthbender off guard in a hug.

"Toph, Toph, I'm so happy you are okay! I didn't know if you had survived the dragon attack at the Northern Air Temple, oh, Zuko will be ever so happy too, you have no idea! He felt so terrible for not seeing you there with us when he saved me and Katara, and he thought for sure you were dead! Oh, I just couldn't be any happier, everything is so perfect now!" Yue exclaimed hastily, hugging Toph so tight she could hardly breathe.

"Y-Yue?" Toph had finally managed to breathe out. She was unable to "see" on the ice of the north and was forced to hold on of the older children's hand to avoid walking into things, she hated it here. Hearing her struggle for breath though, Yue released her suffocating clutch slightly allowing Toph to breathe and say, "Is Zuko here with you?"

"Well, no," Yue replied, making Toph give a disappointed sigh, "But I do know where he is, and he's safe too." She finished in a whisper only to Toph.

It was now Katara's turn for hugging, only this time it was Yue gasping for air, Katara was a master hugger.

"Oh, hey, Aang, Sokka, Suki, this is Yue-" Katara began introducing, but was briefly interrupted by Pakku saying, "_**Princess **_Yue."

"What!?" Katara exclaimed loudly.

"Um, yeah, well, I didn't really tell anybody about that... Oh yes, Master Pakku, my father would like to speak to you, he's waiting." Yue stated awkwardly, then courteously to Pakku.

After Pakku left the introductions continued and Yue invited the GAang into the palace and into a room with a firepit in the center, which was actually standard style for the place. Around were furs and the like and soon the whole crew was settled and warm around the center fire.

Here, Yue explained that she had run away from home which was the reason she never told anyone she was a princess, relieving Katara and Toph both, they had figured themselves untrusted before. While the girls, except for Toph, were highly distracted by Yue clothing and its style, Sokka pondered to Aang,

"So, why did Pakku want us to meet this girl? I am not quite following..."

"Hmmm, I don't know Sokka, we could always ask!" Aang excitedly replied back and before Sokka could stop him, ask her he did,

"Hey, um, princess Yue, why did Pakku want you to meet us?"

"Just Yue is fine, Aang, and I'm not sure exactly why he would have wanted you to meet me, I wasn't even here until today..." Yue replied honestly.

"I know why!" Toph said triumphantly, happy to finally be able to control the conversation of the older kids, "Because Yue can lead you to Zuko."

"So? Why would we wanna meet this Zuko guy?" Sokka asked and the slap to the back of the head he received from Suki was all the answer his question needed, but she also stated, "Last firebender guy, Zuko, that's his name. Geez, keep up, Sokka."

"Hey! I was just testing you guys, I knew that!" Sokka declared, his voice cracking slightly. Katara and Suki both just rolled their eyes.

"So you can take me to Zuko!? And I can talk to him!? Yes! Then I can really start setting the balance right again and maybe the dragons and spirits won't be angry anymore!" Aang chirped and exclaimed loudly, floating through the air happily.

"Um, well, I can take you there, but I have to wait for a bit, I'm kinda waiting for a decision to be made about something really important." Yue stated and continued, "But, um, the dragons aren't angry anymore, they are, um... happy? Somehow Zuko met up with them and they love him, so, they just kinda stay with him, but they aren't rampaging anymore."

"Weird. Well, I guess Aang has barely any Avatar work to do anymore, this Zuko guy seems to be taking care of all the worlds problems." Sokka remarked without thinking, and Aang was visibly hurt by his words.

"No, Aang still has a ton of spirit world stuff to deal with." Katara chimed in, making Aang's day all better.

"Huh?" questioned Yue, tilting her head slightly, and so began the long process of relating each other's adventures to one another.

Zuko

Boring. That was all this place was, boring. For some reason he had lost all motivation to busy himself with restoration so there he laid on the ground in the entryway courtyard, bored, and bored to utter laziness. He vaguely remembered some little friend of his sister's always complaining about boredom, but why he had thought of that, he didn't know. He knew he had to occupy his time though, this was just the first day Yue had been gone, he had 2 more weeks without her here. Glancing over toward Ran and Shaw, he suddenly wished he had someone to talk to, that would at least take some of the monotony away..

Rolling into a jump, he got up to his feet in one smooth motion, he needed to do something, so he decided he would survey the entire palace while the sun was still up, that way he could see what progress he had actually made. The western wing of the palace was entirely in shambles, even the stone walls were starting to crumple inward, some had just fallen over entirely. He guessed that some earthbending a century ago might had been involved in their demise. He did not dare enter that part of the house and would probably have to utterly remove it for fear of it collapsing onto the good side of the palace, very disappointing.

So far, he had cured his boredom with disappointment, but soon he found himself in the decrepit remains of the veranda and garden walkway which joined the two sides together in the middle. Walking along and noting that all of the woodwork had to be replaced, he heard noises from inside the overgrown and wild remains of the former garden. Traipsing through the weeds and foliage, he came upon a murky little puddle of water, but still wading and swimming along in it were a few fuzzy turtle-ducks.

"I haven't seen you little guys in forever!" He remarked, but as soon as he spoke, the little creatures rushed to the other side of the pond, hiding under some overhanging plant life.

It was then he realized, he had never seen them before, he had seen their ancestors 100 years ago, since then the once tame and friendly turtle-ducks had grown unaccustomed to human interference and had become feral and wild. Sometimes, it was hard for him to imagine, being over 100 years old, but by some twist of fate he was, he needed to remember that.

Still though, maybe the little things could be trained to enjoy human company, so he decided he would try to talk to them and feed them everyday. It was then that a greater idea came into his mind, to restore the garden to as close to its original state as he could manage. That would be the perfect gift for Yue upon her return, to come home to a beautiful garden, women were supposed to like that type of thing.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph, Yue

It was after they had all exchanged stories and everyone was simply engaging in some small chit-chat with one another, that was when Chief Arnook entered the room and interrupted their talking. He looked sternly at everyone in the room, then he turned to Yue. He stared for a moment before he stated,

"Yue, my beloved daughter, I have come to the decision that you will not be leaving the Northern Water Tribe."

* * *

Author's Note: Cliffhanger! Tune in next time! Hahahahaha! Nah, I wrote this chapter along with the next, so I won't do that to you guys, it will be up by tomorrow or Sunday, but that's because I am kinda a bum at updating anyways. So, yeah, heavily Yue chapter, but she needed a moment to shine, didn't she? Anyhow, so yeah, I am introducing a slightly new concept here, Yue's personality changed because she was free for a time! (SHOCK!) So, I was debating how to address her dear old dad, who I always thought was kinda an idiot for betrothing his only daughter to that idiot Hahn, but anyhow, I didn't write my spite in there exactly. (Pakku carried it for me, thanks Pakku for being hateful like me!) So, anyway, the relationship between the two was actually really hard to figure out, since you never actually see them talk to each other, so I MADE IT UP! But, I figure, she was still obedient and such, just a bit more mouthy than usual, like all teenage girls to their parents, whaaaaat!?


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Why Can't You Believe In What You Know?

* * *

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph, Yue

Yue's blood froze in her veins as she heard he father's first sentence, yet he continued with only a moments pause, but to her it seemed an eternity.

"That is, until your wedding, then shall I give you away to your groom..." he finished with a sigh.

Arnook may have seemed eager to give his daughter away in marriage, but in truth, just as any doting father, he did not truly think any man was worthy of his baby girl, especially not since she was so touched by the moon spirit as it was told to him.

Since her mother had passed in a dragon attack while visiting with him on diplomatic grounds, he had sheltered his daughter inside the confines of his city, and he was only going to have Hahn marry his daughter because he knew the fool would never leave the Northern Tribe, therefore she would be confined to his relatively safe city.

However, Pakku had spoken to him and further convinced him that his daughter was a capable woman in her own right, and truly she had arranged quite a nice little political scheme. By marrying the only firebender in existence she would be safe from dragon attacks as would her people, it all looked great as far as policies go, but it still came down to him having to give his baby away, and now to a man who couldn't even visit for half the year of all things! It was almost too much, but she had finally stood up for herself, she usually consented like the good little princess she had been raised to be, like a good Water Tribe housewife, but Arnook had to admit, he liked that she had a bit of fight in her, he was especially glad for it since she wanted to marry this stranger. But his internal monologue aside, he still had some rules and regulations to discuss with her and for her future husband, his future son-in-law.

"However, I have some rules that will be followed before and even after your wedding, they are as follows, so pay attention all of you," He began, making sure everyone in the room was paying attention (Well, everyone but Toph who refused to listen to "boring, mushy stuff.") before continuing,

"Firstly, Avatar Aang and at least wise Sokka will go meet with this boy in my stead, as neither I nor Pakku can be spared on a trip to the Fire Nation, there would be too many rumors and whispers that would result. Avatar Aang and Sokka, I expect you to judge this boy's character to every modicum of detail, understand?

Second, upon return of the report from Sokka and Avatar Aang, I expect this boy to send you a proper engagement necklace. However, if he truly holds to his Fire Nation customs he may send something more in line with his own people's style than the Water Tribe's style, I will allow that.

Third, as your dowry, you shall have ten hand servants accompany you to your new home, they shall remain under my payment for as long as they are in your service, but only those ten. And you shall have a proper and better suited wardrobe as well, and the assundry other mundane household things which are customary.

Fourth, Avatar Aang and Sokka, it shall be your duty to also be sure that the home in which Yue is to live is suitable for living in, not a single crack in the pediment or wood will be acceptable, I want every inch checked.

Fifth, the wedding date is to be set for 2 months from tomorrow when you shall leave to go meet with the boy, if none of this is accomplished, then you will not marry him, understood? That is all." Arnook was finished with his list, however he called for Yue to follow him off somewhere else.

Both Aang and Sokka held their hands up in a question asking manner, both questioning in unison,

"So, Yue's getting married...?"

Both Suki and Katara just looked at them with an aggravated look, boys could be so dense.

Yue

Arnook had pulled Yue out of the midst of the others to give her two very special instructions,

"Now, Yue, if ever you fear, loathe, distrust, or disdain from being in the company of this boy, you will be heartily welcomed back here.

Also, if within two years, no heirs are born, no children, you will return home and marry another. Children are a great blessing and it is our unfortunate position to have _need,_ not simple _want_, of heirs as we are of royal blood. However, to place no strife directly into your home at the start, no undue frustration and hatred, he shall not know of our secret bargain, understand? That is all of my wishes and requests for you my dear, you may go write to your betrothed now and also give instructions to direct Sokka and the young Avatar to him."

And with that he left her, still flushing red from his mentioning of having children and such, it was so embarrassing! Still, she was overjoyed to be married so soon, so off she rushed to go write a letter to Zuko and give Aang directions. Oh, wouldn't Zuko just be so happy?

Zuko

Morning came, and so he rose and decided a good firebending warm-up was what the day was calling for, then he would start his work on the garden as it had become his newest obsession. He had noticed it before, but the dragons always seemed particularly interested in his firebending practice, watching ever kata with frightening intensity. It made firebending kinda awkward, but then he would reason with himself about mid-session that they hadn't seen a human bending fire in a very long time, so maybe they were still in awe. Whatever the cause, he didn't let their gawking stop him, and kata after kata he continued.

Just as he was moving into the harder sets, he noticed the dragons twitch their eyes upward and he too followed their gaze up to the blurry shape of a flying bison soaring overhead.

"Oh, don't worry, it's just some monks headed toward the Western Air Temple, they won't bother us- huh?"

He ended his sentence in a question as he heard a faint "aaaaaahnngh" sound coming from somewhere. Then he suddenly noticed a figure hurtling toward the ground, almost straight at him, and he lost his bending stance, it was replaced by a standard shocked stance and expression. The dragons didn't seem shocked, however, and they just watched curiously observing the flying figure of a monk descending toward their master. With a massive blast of air, which made Zuko blink widely in surprise and shock, a strange little bald kid landed in front of him.

"Hi, what's your name? Are you Zuko? I'm Aang! Nice to meet you! Hey, this place is cool! Is it yours? Did you build it? Were you bending? Do you firebend a lot? When was the first time you used firebending? Did you ever burn anything? Does it hurt to have fire in your hand? Can you shoot fire out of your mouth? Can you shoot lightning? Can I watch you practice? Can you teach me firebending? I'm the Avatar! Are the dragons tame now? Can I pet one? Can I ride one? You can ride Appa. Appa's nice and friendly. So, you're marrying Yue? That's cool. She's nice too! Hey, am I invited!? Wanna see a cool trick? Hahahahaha-(Thud) ooooff!"

The kid had chattered incessantly while floating around on some weird ball of air in circles around him before finally running into the wall. Being around this kid for five seconds made Zuko want to tie him up, gag him, and shove him in the deepest, darkest, most forgotten dungeon in the Earth Kingdom and leave him there. He just couldn't stand this kid.

He hadn't even noticed the giant flying bison land across the way from him, but he did notice the familiar voice of Katara.

"Um, you'll have to forgive Aang, he had some stimulant tea, WHICH WAS SUCH A GREAT IDEA TO GIVE HIM!" She yelled towards the other obvious Water Tribe member in the group of foreigners who had shown up at his doorstep.

"Geez Katara, lighten up, he seemed so happy. Oh, and dude, put some clothes on, your bare chest ain't impressing me." the boy responded to Katara, then pointing at Zuko suggested the part about clothing as he was in his simple firebending outfit of pants, just pants.

"Hi." was all the other girl, obviously a Kyoshi warrior, said.

All Zuko could manage in response to the group was half-responses, they all talked together so confusingly, until finally he snapped, yelling and sparking some brambles behind him on fire,

"Katara? Uh, who-? This is my house-! Hi? Wait- WHAT ARE ALL YOU PEOPLE DOING HERE!?"

After his outburst, he noticed the last person in the group, a familiar little face holding tightly onto a flying lemur,

"Toph? ...you're alive? ...Toph!?" was all he could find to say, and as soon as he finished a tiny little body hurtled herself into him, giving his legs the tightest hug they'd ever known, much to the lemur's audible dismay.

"I missed you so much!" she cried, letting her tears fall in public for the first since they had been parted.

"I missed you too..." he said soothingly back to the little girl as he crouched down to give her a proper hug back.

However, his tone changed as he looked back and harshly asked Katara, "So why are the rest of you here?"

Katara figured she wouldn't get a warm welcome and she had expected some venom to be shot her way, so she tried to keep a level tone as she replied, "We are the envoy from Chieftain Arnook from the Northern Water Tribe, here is a letter from Yue, it should explain everything quite reasonably, so you might want to keep a level tone from now on, after you know our mission here."

Picking up Toph and holding her in with one arm, he grasped the letter and unfolded it with his remaining hand. Reading the letter for a minute or two, his eyebrow played an amusing rollercoaster of raising high, then lowering, then lowering into a furrow, then raising high on his forehead again, it was the best to watch for all those who were bystanders, even Appa and Momo were amused.

"What...? Two months...?" were all the words Zuko could manage to form after reading that bombshell of a letter.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki

Having decided that maybe this Zuko guy needed a moment, Katara hurried everyone off to go explore the area and the building, which everyone was overjoyed to do. Thus, while walking around and examining the highly neglected building, Sokka was the first to speak.

"Well, I guess that is one strike against the guy, y'know, for Arnook's list." Sokka commented lamely, kicking a piece of rubble which had collapsed off of the wall.

"Yeah, it is really decrepit." Suki agreed and continued. "I guess he has his work cut out for him these next 2 months, well, if he wants to marry Yue, that is."

"Why wouldn't he want to marry Yue!?" Katara burst out suddenly, shocking the others. "Yue is entirely out of his league! He doesn't get a choice whether he wants to or not, she decided she wanted to be with him of all people, so that's it! Nobody, not even me, gets a say in it otherwise!"

Catching her breathe and calming down, Katara then added truthfully, "Um, I don't know what came over me just now..."

"But, hey! Katara's right!" Aang added cheerily, confusing all the rest. "Let's all pitch in and help him restore this old building! Because otherwise, Yue and he won't be able to get married, and that'll be a shame. Fire Nation weddings are said to be the most festive!" He added matter-of-factly.

"Well, sure, why not. We've got nothing better to do anyway." Sokka replied and Suki agreed nodding her head.

The only one left was Katara, and she agreed to Aang's plan as well, although she harbored some doubts about their ability to truly restore the ancient ruin, as it had become over a century of disuse and neglect.

Zuko, Toph

Now, to say Zuko was happy or overjoyed at this moment would be highly false, he was many things, but happy was not one of them. Toph could sense some of his emotional turmoil as he slid her back down to the ground. Zuko then took a few steps away from Toph and the building and really let out his frustration, rage, and stress, shooting fire blasts from his fist and making the fire that was already there burst higher into the air, which actually startled Toph.

"I KNEW IT! I knew that something bad would happen if she went back to go see her father! I KNEW IT! WHY!? Why does this always happen to me? Things are going good, then it all crashes into the ground all at the same time! Why can't anything ever just go right for me? RAAAAAGH!"

With his final roar he collapsed to his knees, the fires that he had started all dying down and fizzling out with a final wave of his hands. Toph just faced his direction, not sure exactly why he was angry, he was gonna marry Yue, right? Was that why he was angry? Did he not like Yue? Is that why his heart beat faster when he heard her name, was that why his heart would beat faster when he was around her, was it because he hated her? Toph's little six year old mind couldn't comprehend all the intricacies of love yet, all the subtle signs and signals, so there she sat confused as ever wondering what exactly was making Zuko angry.

"Do you hate Yue? Do you not like her?" Toph puzzled out loud finally.

"Oh, no, I'm sorry, Toph," Zuko replied back, realizing that the girl must be highly confused about his outburst. "I really do like Yue, I love her. ….it's just, I don't exactly want to get married to her in two months, I was thinking more like two years..."

"But why? If you love someone aren't you supposed to marry them?" Toph questioned, her innocence and youth showing through in her question.

"Well, when you get older you will see that it is a bit more complex than that. Now, anyway, let's talk about something else. Did you have fun traveling with the Avatar?" Zuko quickly tried to change the subject.

"Well, it was mostly boring until Hei Bai kidnapped me." Toph reminisced boredly.

"What? You got kidnapped!" Zuko was all ears now, how dare anyone kidnap Toph!

"Well, Hei Bai only really snatched me off into the spirit world so I could talk to this old guy." Toph continued.

"What old guy?" Zuko questioned.

"I didn't get his name, and I hadn't met him before, but he said he could talk to me because I had this and it had some sort of attachment to him," She said as she showed Zuko his old blue spirit mask then continued, "He also gave me some tea, it was really good."

"Where did you get that mask?" Zuko questioned as he took the mask out of Toph's hands and examined it and confirmed it was the same one he had thrown away into the sea at Ember Island.

"I found it in the swamp, but, oh yeah, that guy he told me a story about the spirits, it was very long, but he said it had a happy ending, but he didn't tell it to me, he said to ask you and Yue, so can you tell me?"

Toph dismissed the swamp, nothing really major happened there, at least, not that she thought, she had heard what she thought was Jet, but it had been an illusion, so everything about the swamp was nonsense to her; however, she had finally remembered the story that the tea-loving old man had told her and she was eager to hear the conclusion.

"Tell you what?" Zuko was slightly confused, he didn't really know any stories about spirits.

"How does Agni and Tui's love story end?" Toph questioned, trying to clarify for Zuko by stating the spirits' names.

As soon as she had finished asking her question, something inside Zuko's head seemed to pop, and he was out cold.

Aang, Katara, Sokka, Suki, Toph

As soon as they had agreed to help in the restoration of the palace, Aang, Katara, Sokka, and Suki were surprised by Toph racing around the corner to find them.

"Something happened! I was talking to Zuko then he suddenly blacked out! I don't know what's wrong, so come help me!"

Toph more demanded than requested them to come with her and as soon as she had spoken, she turned the corner and was headed back without waiting for a reply. The others, having really no choice, followed after her and soon they were back where they had left Zuko and Toph.

"Hey, Toph, what happened? It's all scorched around here!" Sokka pointed out the obvious to everyone, but also stated their own question.

"Zuko did that, he was angry. He said he didn't wanna marry Yue. But, what's wrong with him?" Toph replied back hastily, not caring about the scorched ground, she was worried about Zuko.

"What!? How dare he not want to marry my sister!" Katara screeched angrily, drawing curious looks from Sokka, Suki, and Aang.

"You and Yue are sisters? I didn't know that." Toph was slightly caught off guard too by Katara's outburst.

"They aren't. Maybe you were meaning your sister tribe member? 'Cause Yue is from our sister tribe in the north? That it?" Sokka stated to Toph and questioned Katara.

"I... I guess that is what I meant." Katara stated unsure herself what she had meant, she was saying a lot of things that she wasn't sure of recently.

While Sokka, Toph, and Katara had been chatting, Suki and Aang had actually been checking up on Zuko, who seemed fine except that he couldn't be woken up.

"Uhm, maybe he got tired from firebending?" Aang suggested confusedly.

Zuko

He had heard what she had asked, and suddenly everything went black. This place seemed familiar, the darkness all around, it almost felt the same as when he was underground in the temple at Crescent Island, but it was slightly different. As he thought of this, a small light in the distance caught his eye, and as soon as he had seen it the light grew brighter and larger, as though it was shooting towards him. Unsure of what to do exactly, he put his hands up in a defensive gesture. The light closed in around him and lit up the darkness which surrounded him, letting him see that he was surrounded by fire. As he marveled at the fire surrounding him, he heard a voice speak...

"Finally, you are here, you are ready."

Turning to see who the strange and familiar voice was coming from, Zuko turned to see a man fully cloaked in armor and wreathed in flames.

"Agni..." Zuko breathed, shocked and suddenly thinking he had died somehow.

"It is time for you to know the truth, you are finally ready to know what or who you really are."

"What? What truth? Who I really am? I am Zuko, crown prince of the Fire Nation, or, I guess, Firelord of the Fire Nation." Zuko replied back to the great Fire Spirit.

"Yes, but not only that, we are one and the same, you and I. I am part of you as much as Tui is a part of her hostess as well, as the past Avatars are part of the current Avatar, passing knowledge and talent to their current incarnation, thus are you and I. When all other firebenders died, all of my power and essence were collected into one last firebender, you." The spirit told him, and Zuko was so caught off guard that it took him quite a few moments to recover and respond.

"Okay, so I think I understand what you are saying, that I can summon you forth in a time of need, that I am me, but I also have another spirit dwelling within me as well, I understand that pretty well, but I don't understand why you are telling me this now. I don't understand why you never talked to me earlier..." Zuko stated back, sounding a bit ruder than he had intended, luckily it seemed Agni was not upset.

"I did try to contact you before, but you were not ready, you were not where you were meant to be and I could not reach you fully, do you remember?" Agni responded to him, and Zuko thought for a moment, then nodded that he did indeed remember someone talking to him in a dream, but he had dismissed it as he didn't see the importance at the time.

"However, I contact you now because you are ready and you need reassurance to your role, apparently. You were crown prince, you are Firelord, you need to accept it and take your country. There are no inhabitants yet, but I am sure that there will be, may your marriage be fruitful. Tui's plan is excellent, you will have one former enemy as an ally from the start, and the Air Nomads will be happy to accept the sovereignty of the Fire Nation as well, the Earth Kingdom will be your only hardship, but we have powerful allies already, Tui, La, and the Avatar, as well as the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors, a small foothold into the Earth Kingdom's graces. There is much to be done, but it is our duty to rebuild that which was destroyed before the entire world is reduced to chaos. Just as there are four elements, there must be four nations, all different, but all the same, everything is connected. Our marriage is the first step to realizing that goal."

As soon as Agni had finished his speech, Zuko opened his eyes and woke suddenly to the sight of Katara, the Avatar, Toph, and the other two who had come with them hovering over him, making him feel highly self-conscious.

"You're okay!" Toph happily cheered then punched Zuko in the arm, and punched hard for a six year old.

"Yeah, I guess I am." Zuko replied stoically, then added, "And I guess I really need to get to work on this place so it is finished for the wedding."

* * *

Author's Note: Okay, yeah, I suck. So, I was totally planning to post this like an hour after the last chapter, but I got sidetracked and forgot, so to make up for it, I added a bit more to it, it had originally ended right around Zuko saying "Two months...?" but I added more for you guys, because you are patient... Also, I must say that the next chapter is gonna be in a different format than usual, similar, but different. I am gonna use a letter format, like people writing letters back and forth to each other, I thought it would be cool, so I am gonna attempt it, so far so good, but that may change... So, you have been warned. Also, there is like diddly squat on Fire Nation weddings, or any of the four nations' wedding ceremonies, so I will say this now, I am totally making it up, but I am utilizing what little we do see of Avatar Roku's wedding in book three, so that's that. So, questions, comments, reviews, all are appreciated! And yes, person (I forgot your name), the titles of the chapters are song lyrics! Yay! I didn't think anybody would get that or at least say it...


	22. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: All Those Scented Pages

* * *

Dear Zuko,

How are you? Did Aang and the others make it there? I have not heard from anyone that they did and it has been a week. How are you and Katara, on friendly terms I hope, I know that things got confused between us all, but you and I were able to sort everything out, so I hope that you and Katara are able to work through it. I guess it is all a silly point to make if they have not arrived yet, so I shall wait for confirmation that they have arrived before I write any thing more. I love you and miss you dearly.

Yours Truly,

Yue

* * *

Yue,

Yes, the Avatar and the others have arrived, and they even volunteered to help me in the restoration of the palace. It was a nice gesture, but I do not want them to interfere too much as they do not know what it is meant to look like, although, I must admit that without Toph's earthbending, the walls would still be collapsing in on themselves, so that was a great help. That Sokka guy is the same guy we met at the Northern Air Temple, the one I wanted to punch, occasionally I still do, but for being an idiot, he is actually pretty smart. As for Katara, she has some weird mood swing where she hates me, but mostly we get along okay, we just do not talk or interact much. The best news is that they have all stopped staring in awe at my firebending, like they finally got used to it, I do not like being the center of attention as though I am a circus freak. So, I guess I will see you in about seven weeks now.

Signed,

Zuko

* * *

Dear Yue,

I am so sorry we never contacted you to let you know we arrived safely! Zuko mentioned it when he got your letter, and I felt compelled to immediately write back and tell you how sorry I was, personally, but also how all the others felt bad about it too. Also, I wanted to ask you about your wedding plans, is the wedding going to be traditional Water Tribe or are you thinking more Fire Nation style since it is going to be held here, correct? Aang tells me that Fire Nation weddings are the most festive, but he also admits that he has only attended Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom weddings, so he may not be correct. Also, what color scheme are you going with, blues and whites or reds and... black? I have just realized that the typical Fire Nation colors are no good for wedding color schemes. Not to be pushy, but I totally offer my services as a go between on wedding planning for you and Zuko, and I can arrange and set everything up over here, so feel free to ask me to do anything, Suki says she will do the same.

Sincerely,

Katara

* * *

Dearest Zuko,

You write very formally, like a letter of business, did you know that? I just thought it was funny. Seriously, however, now that I know that you have met with the others and therefore know fully the plans for the wedding, I must ask you, what are your thoughts about it? Do you want a wedding that is more traditionally Fire Nation, or would it matter if the wedding was more in a Northern Water Tribe tradition? As well, were there any color preferences that you had thought of? White and blue are the traditional Water Tribe colors, but I know red was an important color for Fire Nation ceremonies, so I am told, so would you prefer red or any other color combination for the wedding? Also, on another note, my father has sent word to the head of each of the four Air Temples, and they are going to meet with him and myself in a few weeks time, I believe we are to discuss whether the Air Nomads are going to respect and acknowledge the return of the Fire Nation. Great news, right? Well, I will not write anymore about it now, I do not want to jinx the meeting. How are you doing? I miss you terribly, and I love you, truly and deeply.

Love,

Yue

* * *

Yue,

Weddings are not really my area of expertise, so you can plan it however you wish, just fill Katara in on the details so she can help me figure out my part. The same goes with the color choices, I trust you to make a perfect choice. The repairs and reconstruction are going well, in fact, we are planning to visit the Western Air Temple next week or the week after to start the process of refurnishing the inside. The grounds still need a tremendous amount of work, as do the connecting verandas, but the inside rooms are mostly repaired, having extra hands and minds working together has actually been a good thing. Well, that was all I had to write about, so we are just a bit under six weeks out, are we not? Time is flying it seems.

Signed,

Zuko

* * *

Dear Katara,

I am terribly sorry to write back so late to you, I did receive your letter, I just wanted to get some clarification from Zuko on what he wanted, and he wrote that he trusted me to make the decisions, so I did some thinking and decided some things on my own. As far as colors go, I want to mesh both of our cultures together and utilize white and red, mainly, but the men can have red with black for their attire, the ladies with wear red. Going with the theme of meshing the two cultures together, I thought that maybe we could do the same for the ceremony, however, I know basically nothing about the Fire Nation's wedding tradition, so any help you could give me there would be great, does Aang know any of the ceremony? As well, I know of very few of the Fire Nation's native flowers, and I would like a variety to be utilized in the décor, so I give you that task as well, please recommend a flower that suits the color scheme. As well, would you, Suki, and Toph want to be part of my entourage for the wedding? I am so sorry that I did not get a chance to ask each of you in person. I hope I have not given you too many tasks or asked too much of you, however, I have one last question for you, does Zuko seem stressed?

Sincerely,

Yue

* * *

Dear Yue,

Suki, Toph, and myself would be overjoyed to be part of your attendants, just let us know what you want us to do in particular.

We had a lovely visit to the Western Air Temple recently, so I was able to put together some information on Fire Nation wedding ceremonies for you, the Air Nomads kept great records of ceremonies they preformed or presided over. That is one stark difference, according to Fire Nation tradition, a spiritual person must preside over and give their blessing to the marriage, rather than just the father of the bride and father of the groom both giving their blessing. Which, not to be bossy, the Fire Nation tradition would probably work out better in this situation due to the fact that, well, Zuko's family members are all dead.

Moving on, however, another tradition is the lighting of ceremonial candles, three of them, one lit by the groom, one by the bride, and the third lit by the two together utilizing the candles they had previously lit. After the official vows and promises, they had a great store of these, apparently you write your own in the Fire Nation instead of reciting the formal rehearsed vows like in the Water Tribe, anyhow, after that the couple is to stay together for the entire night, never leaving the other's side. Also, the before the feast can begin, the husband must create a fire which the wife utilizes to make ginseng tea, of which she pours him the first cup. After this there is feasting and dancing and general merrymaking until the sun sets, then fireworks are set off to light up the sky. Oh, yes, all Fire Nation weddings take place before the sun sets, but not at dawn, just near sunset.

As for colors, I think that selection works wonderfully, I can get some material at the Western Air Temple if you would like. It would seem that the monks at the Western Air Temple did not want to let the ancient style of the Fire Nation die, so they preserve and craft the olden Fire Nation styles and sell them amongst the visitors and tourists to the Western Air Temple. Zuko was rather furious about it, but I am happy that we have someone to get the clothing from. Also, Zuko showed me a native flower that is an orangish-red, growing more red towards the time when the flower is out of bloom, I wish I could show you it, but it is called a Firelily.

And finally, as for Zuko, he does not seem too stressed. I mean, he was terribly furious at how the culture of his people was "being mocked and sold to tourists for a petty profit for greedy merchants" as he put it, but other than that, he is fine, why do you ask?

Sincerely,

Katara

* * *

My Love,

I heard from Katara that you went to the Western Air Temple, how was it? Is it as beautiful and breathtaking as the Northern Air Temple? Are the monks just as friendly? It has been a while since we wrote to each other, has it not? How have you been? I suppose you have been terribly busy as I have, well, more or less, different types of busy, but busy just the same. I hope you are not too terribly stressed, but if you are, do let me know, please. You can tell me anything, you know that, right? Well, it seems as though father and I are traveling to the Northern Air Temple tomorrow, we are to have an audience with the head monks from the four Air Nomad Temples there and we hope to have their support in recognizing the Fire Nation once more. I will not write too much more about it because I do not want to bring bad luck on our endeavors, which i believe I stated before.

Love,

Yue

* * *

Yue,

I am not stressed, however, I do suppose I have been quite pre-occupied with various tasks. Also, I have enclosed your betrothal necklace with this letter, I hope it is adequate. I was highly unsure of your people's customary designs and such, so I substituted a design familiar to my people, however it is not as elegantly captured as it should be, but I am no artisan. I am not sure how much I will be able to write back to you in the coming weeks, if at all, so I suppose I can just be content with speaking when I see you, only three weeks left, correct?

Signed,

Zuko

* * *

Dear Katara,

Thank you for your last letter, as to why I was asking about Zuko, I was simply curious. I have another request to make of you, would it be too much to ask of you to come and visit me? I wanted to finalize some of the details in person, and since you have been coordinating everything on that end, I wanted to get together and pull everything together. If it is not too much trouble, could Suki and Toph come as well?

Sincerely,

Yue

* * *

Author's Note: So, wow, this took forever to finish... Which is weird because in the end I got too lazy to even really go through all of the details of the ceremony and such... Oh well, so next chapter is a super duper huge fantastic wedding! Sweet! So? Tell me how you think that went as far as character wise, also, did anybody figure out why Yue was so worried? Well, here's a reason, she is a bride to be planning her wedding, but reason two has to do with Zuko. Read his letters and you will see, hopefully... Well, until next time I randomly update! TTFN!


End file.
